Familiar and Unfamiliar Summonings
by LordsFire
Summary: My explorations in the world of Halkeginia; mostly inspired by discussions on the Spacebattles Creative Writing forums. Dragon Summoning moved to its own story.
1. Optimus Prime

Author's Notes:

Any miscellaneous Familiar of Zero and Zero crossover short stories will end up in here; I may expand upon them in the future, they may just sit here at the present length. Generally speaking, what I put here will start from the assumption that the reader has a basic functioning familiarity with the cast of Familiar of Zero, and thus will not go to any particular length to introduce or explain most of them. Also, I am not fond of Saito. He will probably never appear here.

((()))

An earth-shattering explosion rocked the summoning circle, closely followed by an earth-_shaking_ thud. Smoke from the explosion obscured the clearing for quite some time, and quite a number of young nobles surrounding the summoning circles broke into fits of coughing. Gradually, the smoke cleared, and Louise began to make out a shape within the smoke.

_I have not failed!_ She shouted within her mind, raw exultation coursing through her. Straining her eyes, she attempted to discern the shape of what she had summoned through the fading smoke, but could not yet see the full shape, it was rather _large_. As the smoke continued to clear, she looked up. And up.

And _up_. Finally, she saw the… golem? The golem's head, and the glowing bright blue eyes within its metallic face. The massive, man shaped-amalgamation of red, blue, and gray metal (and was that _glass?_) surveyed the courtyard, sweeping its gaze across the various students, and professor Colbert, before settling on Louise, as the nearest being. Kneeling in front of her (and causing the ground to shake slightly when its knee struck the flagstones of the courtyard,) it fixed its gaze upon her.

"I," It said in a deep, commanding voice, "Am Optimus Prime. Who, are you?"

Several of the students fainted.

Louise snapped out of her shocked reverie, and she met the massive Prime's gaze with a fierce, exultant stare of her own.

"I am Louise la Blanc de la Valliere," She said, raising her wand, and reaching up to tap the thing's forehead, "Pentagon of the five elements, bless this creature, and make it my familiar."

She had to jump, in order to reach the creature's face to kiss it, something that would normally have flustered her greatly, as it reminded her of her shortness, but right now, she _could not_ care.

"Interesting," The titan said in an amused voice as it (he?) inspected the runes melting themselves into the metal plate on his left forearm.

((()))

Optimus encounters Guiche:

"Apologies human," Optimus said, crouching to examine the blond more carefully, "I did not mean to mistake your gender, but I am not yet very familiar with your species. I had thought males past puberty had more body hair."

Guiche spluttered indignantly, and when he heard Louise (and Montmorency!) break into a _most_ unlady-like fit of laughter, considered, for a moment, challenging her familiar. Then Optimus stood up, and Guiche recalled that the 'Ah-toe-bot' was made out of metals stronger than bronze. And was something like six times taller than him.

((()))

Optimus encounters Fouquet:

"I'm sorry ma'am," Optimus voice rang through the courtyard as he stepped around the castle wall and into view, "But I cannot permit you to burglarize the Academy treasury."

Fouquet ordered her golem to attack. Optimus's left hand reconfigured into a white-hot blade, and proceeded to cut the golem into several dozen pieces, while his other hand gently crushed the woman's wand, then caught her as she began to fall from the Golem's shoulder.

"I will plead for leniency on your behalf," Optimus said, as his heavy strides carried him around the castle, towards the faculty wing, "As you timed your assault to avoid imperiling the students, but I must now hand you over to the local authorities."

((()))

Optimus encounters Siesta:

"You are very diligent," Optimus said to the maid doing laundry beside him in the courtyard, "It speaks well of your character."

"Thank you, Mister Prime," Siesta said, smiling up at the massive robotic life form.

"It seems very inefficient, however," Prime said, "I will see what I can do to aid you in this."

One week later:

"This machine will be resistant to rust," Optimus said to the stunned maid, "And will require water and soap in the indicated portions to function properly. The solar panels should receive as much direct sunlight as possible. With six hours or more in a day, you should be able to operate the machine approximately fifty percent of the time."

"Thank you Mister Prime," Siesta said, slightly dazed as she watched a machine do an hour's taxing work in half an hour, without any further labor required on her part.

((()))

Optimus encounters Colbert:

"But how does it _work?_" Colbert asked excitedly, showing, pacing around the mechanical contraption as it spun clothing to clean-ness.

"It runs on electricity," Optimus said, a tinge of amusement evident in his voice.

"Electricity?" Colbert said, not looking away from the machine, "How does a machine run on electricity?"

"Here," Optimus said, extending a single metal finger to draw in a loose patch of earth, "I will explain to you the electric motor and generator, as I have seen humans use them before."

((()))

Optimus and Louise talk:

"Don't you get tired?" Louise asked curiously, looking up and down at Optimus, where he was standing outside of her window.

"Autobots experience fatigue differently from organic creatures," Optimus said, his voice quiet for a being whose height is measured in stories, "We instead experience metal fatigue over much longer periods of time, and must occasionally replace portions of our bodies with fresh material."

"How much longer?" Louise asked, leaning against the edge of her window.

"Barring accidents or combat," Optimus said, "Years, decades, or even centuries by your time scale."

Louise's eyes widened.

"_Centuries_?" She asked, her voice full of awe, "How long do your people live?"

"We do not die of age," Optimus said, "Only of starvation or war."

A long silence passed between the two at Optimus words, until Louise eventually broke it.

"We must seem pitiful creatures to you," Louise said softly, "Short-lived, frail, weak."

"No," Optimus said quietly, but with certainty, "The measure of a sentient is not in their span of life, the durability of their body, or their strength at arms. The measure of a sentient is in what they make of themselves, with the opportunities they are given. I am powerful amongst my race, not the most powerful, but quite formidable, and I hold a position of leadership. An old foe of mine, who once millennia past, was a friend, is in many ways my counterpart amongst the Decepticons. He and I have fought many times, yet neither of us have managed decisive victory over the other. He is also a leader, and our forces have met in battle many times, but though we have both driven the other from the battlefield, neither of us has been able to rout the other's forces.

"Our abilities are a near match, yet he is unjust and cruel, harshly punishing subordinates for failure not their fault, sometimes slaying them outright. I have not been a perfect leader, but I know there are many innocent lives that would have been lost had I not fought to protect them, and many he would have slain unjustly had I not stopped him."

Optimus stopped for a moment, then bent down to place his face, larger than Louise's entire body, directly in front of the diminutive girl.

"You are a child, on the cusp of adulthood," He said, "Often belittled by your peers, and with more limited abilities than they possess. But your measure is not found in what your peers think of you, but what you choose to do with yourself. Perhaps all that your magic can do is create explosions, but that is an ability in and of itself. If the need arises, you could serve as a warrior, and destroy foes with powerful blasts from afar. Or perhaps something more simple, such as demolishing unwanted structures, or clearing sections of forest? There are many things you _could_ be or do, but in the end, who you are is something you will decide for yourself, not something your peers decide for you."

Louise was uncertain how to reply, and her confusion was plain on her face. Optimus gently nudged her with one of his large fingers towards her bed, then bid her goodnight, and quietly (for him) moved off to another part of the castle.

Sleep was long in coming for Louise that night.

((()))

Optimus and Louise speak with the princess:

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings," Optimus said, "I would be proud to stand beside you as you seek to bring freedom and justice to the common folk of Halkeginia."

"And I," Louise said, "Will of course support you in your reforms. You are my liege-lady, I could not do otherwise."

Henrietta smiled.

((()))

Optimus Prime deals with the Reconquista:

The impromptu would-be wedding was interrupted by a massive metallic hand ripping the roof off of the church.

"Wardes," Prime boomed, blazing blue eyes glaring down at the grey-haired traitor, "I am very disappointed with you. There are very few things that can raise my ire sufficiently that I would be willing to kill a human for. Attempting to rob a young woman of her will, then force her to sexual congress is one of them."

Wardes snarled, and raised his sword-wand to defend himself, but a blast of brilliant blue energy crashed through one of the church windows and disintegrated him.

Prince Wales brain locked up. Louise shook off the enchantment from the Cardinal. Prime analyzed the ring Wales wore, and identified the Prince as the Prince.

"Come," He boomed, carefully sweeping the two up with one of his hands, "We must return to Tristain immediately."

"Guh," Wales said.

"Um," Louise said nervously as Prime carried them through the night, "Prince Wales, please meet my Familiar Mister Optimus Prime."

"Guh," Wales repeated.

((()))

When the Reconquista attacks Tristain:

Swarms of airborne Knights descended upon Tarbes; Louise and Optimus glared at the mass of Dragons and Britons.

"THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING, ENSLAVERS," Prime boomed, his voice easily projected across the entire battlefield, "SURRENDER OR FACE DESTRUCTION."

The Britons did not surrender.

Prime opened fire.

There were not many Dragon Knights left at the end of the day.


	2. Negi Springfield

AN: This is written for fun, _not_ to be another novel length story spur like Dragon Summoning. I may occasionally come back and kick out another chunk, but it'll all just be played for laughs. Some suffixes will show up, depending on how well I think the translation spell used in here would be able to translate their general meaning. If there isn't a simple English equivalent, the suffix will remain.

Louise coughed, and sat up, waving the smoke away from her face. She did not wait, however, for the smoke to clear before leveling a baleful glare at the center of the summoning circle. _This_ spell, she could _not_ afford to fail. If she never successfully cast another spell in her life, summoning a familiar would still prove her a mage. Conversely, her years of failure at magic meant that a failure to summon a familiar could very easily by taken others as the final proof that she had no magic. Fortunately, when the smoke cleared, there _was_ in fact something there.

_Un_fortunately, that something was also a _someone_, more specifically what appeared to be a twelve year old boy with a staff far too large for him, sitting in a posture that nearly mirrored that of Louise. He blinked at her, took a long look at the surrounding courtyard, students, and Professor Colbert, then turned back to Louise, smiles and waved a little.

When he opened his mouth and spoke, however, absolutely nothing he said was even remotely comprehensible. He looked expectantly at her for a moment, looked around again, then nodded, and spoke gibberish at her in what was clearly a different language altogether.

"Ah," Colbert said, "If you would complete the binding ritual, so that I may cast a translation spell?"

"_Binding_ ritual?" Louise said, turning to look at Colbert in shock, "But he's just a-"

Colbert gave her a _look_. It _may_ have had something to do with this being her sixth summoning attempt, and Colbert was dangerously close to being late for a social lunch with the Headmaster's secretary, but Louise did not know such things. She _did_ know that she had only seen looks like that on one person before; her mother. And you did _not_ argue with Louise's mother.

Louise hastily stood, and strode over to the boy, raising her wand. The boy had switched to a third language during her brief exchange with Colbert, and tried a fourth as she approached. He stopped though, and perked up when he saw her wand, smiling at her in a _terrifyingly_ cute manner. Several of the female students _squeed_ with delight, as he unwittingly triggered maternal instincts in over a dozen sixteen and seventeen year old young noblewomen of Tristain. Louise was no exception, and for a moment, her wand arm faltered.

Then Colbert cleared his throat pointedly, and Louise sprang into action almost involuntarily.

"," Louise blurted out all in one breathe, startling the boy, who made no move to dodge, then bent down and kissed him.

That was where things began to get _strange_. The moment that Louise's lips came into contact with the boy's, a white ferret-like creature leapt out of the hood of the boy's cloak, gesturing purposefully, and a luminous circle of runes appeared on the flagstones of the summoning court around the two. Louise felt a tingle of magic flow not just from her into him, as should have happened with the Familiar Binding, but also from _him_ into _her._

_It_tingled_._It was warm, and strong, fierce and sharp, and perhaps more than anything else, _fiercely_ protective. Louise felt slightly breathless as it passed through her, and it took her a moment to remember to pull back from the kiss; and when she did, she bolted upright, cheeks flaming with embarrassment at her momentary lack of control, especially at such an awkward moment.

Then a card, not unlike a playing card, but far more elaborate and of such precise artistic quality she had never seen the like before, appeared directly in front of her. It's appearance was startling enough in and of itself, what was _on_ the card would have scared Louise if she wasn't already embarrassed. On the card was an image of Louise, her pink hair, brief stature, and slight build all unmistakable, but she was _wearing_ some sort of pitch-black robe, with pink trim exactly the same shade as her hair, and carried a staff in her hands. What truly startled Louise, was that her image on the card was _smiling_. Smiling in a way she had not smiled since her first day at the academy. There was also some form of writing on the card, which read _Destructor__Mundi._

Louise looked up from the card to the boy, and found that he held an identical card in his hands, and was examining it curiously, while the weasel-creature on his shoulder spoke excitedly to him in a language Louise did not understand.

"What is this?" Louise demanded, taking hold of the card and waving it at the boy.

The boy looked up at her, startled from his study of the card.

"What is it?" Louise demanded again, and the boy smiled nervously at her, before speaking a few words, and gesturing with his staff, which emitted a brief burst of light.

"Can you understand me now?" He asked, eyes wide with earnest curiosity.

Louise's heart seized up in her chest.

_Founder,_ she thought, _I__haven't__just__summoned__some__commoner,__I've__summoned__a_noble_,__this__could__have__all_kinds_of__political__complications!__Mother__will__kill__me!_

"Um," The boy said, frowning cutely and drawing Louise's attention back to him, "I thought I had that right, maybe I should try again?"

"I understand you," Louise said abruptly, "I am Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere. Who are you?"

"Negi Springfield!" Negi said brightly, "It's nice to meet you Miss Valliere, are we in Mundus Magicus?"

"Mundus Magicus?" Louise asked, "I've never heard of it."

"You haven't?" Negi said, frowning slightly, "I would have-"

They were both cut off by a sizzling sound, and Louise detected the faint odor of cooking meat. The boy raised his left arm, and Louise saw the familiar runes cooking themselves into his flesh, and now her stomach seized up.

_Brimir,_ she thought, _now__I've_branded_another__noble!__And__just__a__child!__This__couldn't__possibly__get__any__worse!_

"Interesting," The boy said distractedly, peering curiously at the runes on his hand curiously, "Were you trying to summon a partner?"

"Familiar," Louise said faintly, disturbed by the boy's lack of reaction to his flesh being branded, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were a noble when I summoned you."

"Oh," The ferret-thing said, smiling up at her (how did it do that? Louise was _sure_ Cattleya had told her rodents didn't have the right muscles to smile, much less _speak!)_, "Aniki's not a noble."

Louise breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"He's a prince," The ferret continued

Louise decided now would be an excellent time to sit down. Very quickly. Even if the flagstones were rather hard.

"Ahem," Colbert said, eyeing the small white creature on the boy's shoulder warily, "Prince of which kingdom, would that be?"

"Vespertatia," The ferret said, "Where are we now?"

"The Kingdom of Tristain," Colbert said cautiously, "In Halkeginia. Are you familiar with it?"

"Never heard of it," The ferret said, "Hey Aniki, you ever heard of Halkeginia?"

"No, Chamo," Negi said, looking up from the runes, which had finished infusing themselves into his flesh, to face Colbert, "I've never heard of it, on Earth or Mundus Magicus. Hello sir, I'm Negi Springfield, who would you be?"

"Jean Colbert," The balding professor said, straightening up a bit as he spoke, "I am a Professor here at the Tristain Academy of Magic."

He opened his mouth to say something further, but realized he wasn't quite sure of what to say; the boy was supposed to be a prince, but he certainly didn't _act_ like one, and had, in fact, not confirmed it for himself.

"It's nice to meet you, Professor Colbert," Negi said politely, "But I'm afraid I need to get back to Mahora, it's almost time for dinner, and big sis Asuna will be really mad if I'm late."

"Er," Colbert said, feeling like he was navigating a verbal minefield, "Unfortunately, due to the nature of the summoning ritual, and the fact that no one has ever summoned a human," He glanced at 'Chamo' the talking ferret, "Or other intelligent creature, we've never had need to send a summoned familiar back before."

"Eh?" Negi said, eyes widening in surprise, "The spell is only one way? That's kind of shoddy magecraft for a teleportation/summoning spell, isn't it?"

"The Spring Summoning Ritual is a sacred rite that's been passed down over six thousand years from the Founder Brimir himself!" Colbert said, somewhat indignant and feeling slightly defensive, "There has simply never been cause to reverse the summoning before!"

"Eh?" Negi said thoughtfully, "Six thousand years years ago? A spell with enough range and power to draw me away from Earth altogether, that's pretty good for magecraft that old, but hasn't anyone ever bothered to try and improve on it?"

"Improve on it!" Colbert said, slightly flabbergasted, "As I just said, it's a _sacred_ rite, that would be sacrilege!"

"Sacred?" The boy said curiously, "That summoning didn't _feel_like purification-"

He cut off as his stomach abruptly, _loudly_ growled. Louise, still sitting on the flagstones in front of the boy, had her ears just about even with his stomach, and thus was in _excellent_ position to hear it very clearly.

"Ah ha," The boy said, smiling nervously, "It really _is_ close to dinner time, and-"

He cut off, and his eyes widened in horror.

"Oh no!" He gasped, "I'm _late__for__dinner!_ Big sis Asuna's gonna be _so__mad_, I gotta explain to her before-"

His free hand dove into a pocket, and retrieved another card, one much like the one Louise now held in her hand, but with a very different girl on the front of it. Louise caught only a glance of the girl, but it was easy to tell that, at the least, the girl's hair was brown rather than pink, and she was _much_ taller than Louise. Deciding that she wanted a better look (and had spent quite enough time with her butt on the flagstones), Louise stood up, just as Negi stuck the card against his forehead. This wouldn't have been a problem, but Negi also bent his head slightly forward to bring his the card into contact with his forehead, which placed his nose in exactly the right place for a strand of Louise's hair, stirred upward and forward by her standing, to tickle his nose, and Negi sneezed.

And when Negi sneezed, there was a sudden blast of wind, and a tall, slender girl in what was unmistakeably a school uniform in front of him. Unfortunately, directly in front of Negi, meant much the same thing as 'right on top of Louise,' and the pinkette found herself displaced, and her butt met the flagstones again. Louise scowled up at the taller girl, but the girl was facing the boy, not herself.

"Negi!" The girl snapped, planting her hands on her hips and staring down at the boy, "You're late for dinner!"

"It's not my fault big sis Asuna!" Negi burst out worriedly, cowering slightly before the girl's aggressive attitude, "I got summoned to this place!"

"What?" Asuna snapped, whirling to glare around the courtyard, first at Colbert, then at all the other students standing around gawking, then finally at Louise herself, scowling when she saw the card in Louise's hand.

"Chamo!" She shouted, and reached out behind her, snagging the rodent without even looking at him, "Have you been hatching plots to make more partners for Negi again!"

Louise was glad the girl was glaring at 'Chamo' rather than her; she found the girl's different colored eyes, one green, one blue, to be disconcerting. And that was a _truly_ fierce scowl. Not even close to the level of her mother, but comparable to her older sister Eleanor.

"No, miss Asuna!" The ferret said, squirming in her grip, "The girl here just happened to kiss Negi, and I could hardly let the opportunity go to waste!"

Asuna glared at the weasel-thing for a moment longer, pulling him closer for a more intent inspection, then nodded reluctantly, and reached back over her shoulder to place the creature on Negi's shoulder again, who visibly relaxed.

"So," Asuna said, and now she _was_glaring at Louise, "_Why_ are you kissing my Negi? You've got to be four or five years older than him, and if you're looking to be his partner just because he's famous..."

The growl in her voice had _very_ clear implications, and her tone and word choice revealed an almost shocking amount of proprietary feeling about the boy.

"Ahem," Colbert cut in, and Louise was _so__very__glad_ that the girl's baleful gaze was redirected to him, "Today is a special day at the Tristain Academy of Magic," Colbert explained, "On which second-year students summon their familiars. It's a summoning spell that has never been known to select humans before, and it is the spell, not the caster that chooses what is to be summoned, the summonee being the creature most suited to the mage. I can assure you that miss Louise's summoning of 'your Negi' was quite unintentional."

Asuna glared at Colbert for a moment longer, then opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Negi's stomach growling again. She scowled at Colbert, before whirling to face Negi, and picking him up by his collar with no apparent effort. The boy was hardly very large, but Asuna wasn't very muscular either; and Louise, not to mention the other onlookers, were more than a little startled by how easily, and readily, the fiery girl did so, using one hand to do so, the other still planted imperiously on her hip.

"Right brat!" She declared, "Konoka should be finished cooking by now, so take us back home right now!"

"But I don't know how to get us back yet!" Negi declared, arms waving wildly as he protested.

"Then bring her here!" Asuna declared, shaking the boy forcefully, "And make sure you summon dinner as well! Big sis Arika told me to take care of you, and I'm not going to let her only son go and starve himself because he's too absent-minded to eat!"

"O-ok-kay B-big-S-sis A-asu-na!" Negi declared as the girl shook him, then reached into his pocket, and pulled out another card.

Asuna spun the boy around, pointing him away from her, and a moment later, a low wooden table laden with dishes Louise, Colbert, and all of the onlookers were not familiar with appeared. It had four place-settings at it, along with an elegant young woman with a surprised, but welcoming smile, who was seated with her legs beneath her at the far side of it. The girl had very long black hair falling loosely down her back to her waist, and wore a comfortable-looking robe that Louise realized was very similar to the one on her card.

"Asuna!" The girl called with delight, "You found Negi-kun!"

"Yes, Konoka-chan," Asuna declared forcefully, sparing a smile for the newly-summoned girl before glaring meaningfully at the boy, striding around the small table "He got himself summoned off to some strange kingdom again, probably some big magical adventure. Would you make sure he feeds himself? You know he always forgets to take care of himself when we're saving the world."

"Of course, Asuna-chan!" Konoka said, smiling brightly, "I'll take care of Negi-kun."

Asuna planted Negi in the empty seat beside Konoka, who began serving foods onto his plate, then turned to face Colbert and Louise, who decided it would be a good time to try standing up again.

"Right," She said, glaring at the pair of Halkeginians, "Now one of you is going to start explaining to me exactly what is going on here."

There was an awkward silence between the three, as Asuna waited impatiently, and the other two weren't quite sure of what to say.

"Konoka," Negi quietly asked the other girl, "Who was the fourth place for?"

"Set-chan," The girl said quietly, "She had just joined us for dinner when Asuna went looking for you."

"Uwah!" Negi said startled, "I'd better summon her too, before she gets too worried!"

A _third_ card came out of the boy's pocket, and a moment later, _another_ girl appeared, clad in a skirt and blouse much like the academy uniform for girls, and carrying a very long wooden case, from which she drew an equally long straight-edged sword so fast Louise wasn't sure she'd actually seen the girl move.

"Lady Konoka!" The girl burst out, worry clear in her voice, "What happened! You just disappeared!"

"Oh," Konoka said smiling warmly up at the girl, "Don't worry Set-chan, it's just the start of another adventure."

"Oh," The new girl said, "I guess that's why Negi was late for dinner."

"Why he was _late__for__dinner?_" Louise burst out incredulously, "I suppose that getting teleported to another world is a common occurrence for you people?"

"Oh yes," Konoka said brightly, smiling at Louise, "Negi is quite experienced with adventures, why he's saved at least two worlds so far, and probably will be saving this one in a few months now that we're here."

Louise gibbered at the girl, her jaw working silently as she tried to find words for what was going on in front of her.

"A_hem_," Asuna growled, "Get with the explaining!"

"Ah," Colbert said, "Quite. I am, as I have said, Jean Colbert, the Flame Snake. You would be?"

"Asuna Vesperina Theotanasia Entheofushia," Asuna said, "Second Princess of Vespertatia, Null Mage. Start with the explaining."

"As I said earlier," Colbert said, "The summoning of, er, Prince Springfield-"

"Just call me Negi," Negi cut in smiling and waving up at the balding professor.

"Er," Colbert said, slightly disoriented but deciding to consent to the Prince's wishes, "Negi then, was quite unintentional. Not only do we have no recorded instances of a human being summoned in the last six thousand years, we've certainly never summoned a noble before, much less _royalty_."

"Not just any royalty," Asuna said sharply, glaring at the man, "My big sister is the Queen. Negi is the _crown__prince_."

Colbert's face took on a sickly cast at the girl's words. This could _easily_ be taken as an act of war, and if they could summon people across dimensional boundaries as easily as Negi had the three girls that had arrived so far...

Colbert blinked, and _stared_. There were two _more_ girls present now. When had _they_ arrived?

"Come and eat with us Louise-chan," Konoka said, smiling at the pinkette and gesturing for her to join Negi and the quartet of girls already seated around the small table, "Now that you've joined the White Wings, we should all get to know each other."

"The White Wings?" Louise asked hesitantly, edging closer to the table and eyeing the girls warily.

To her considerable surprise, one of them appeared to actually be shorter than her. Somehow, that helped her feel just a little bit more comfortable.

"Yes," The short one said, far more subdued than her companions, "It's the name Negi and all his Ministra Magi have taken on. I am Yue Ayase the Clarifying Philosopher, and this is my friend Nodoka Miyazaki, the Modest Librarian. You are?"

"I am Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere," Louise said reflexively, "Third daughter of Duke Valliere..." She trailed off sadly for a moment before finishing, "I have no runic name yet."

"Yes you do!" One of the students still standing in the background snapped off, "Everyone knows you're the _Zero!_"

Louise's head snapped around, glaring balefully at her detractor, Montmorency of the Montmorencies, but before she could even open her mouth to retort, someone else was already there. Louise blinked, her glare interrupted by confusion; hadn't Negi been sitting beside Konoka while she hand fed him just a moment ago?

"It's not nice to make fun of other people," He said firmly with a frown, causing Montmorency to look down, and then startle rather badly when she saw him, suddenly in front of her.

"Louise is one of my Ministra now," Negi said sternly, "And the White Wings take care of each other. No being mean!"

Montmorency gaped at the serious young man standing in front of her, searching for a response.

"Negi!" Konoka said, "You still haven't finished your dinner!"

And just like that, Negi was no longer standing in front of Montmorency, but was again seated beside Konoka.

"Aaaaa!" Konoka said, holding up a morsel of food clasped between slender carved sticks, and Negi opened his mouth dutifully, allowing the older girl to place the morsel within.

She smiled sunnily at Negi, before turning to face Louise again.

"Do sit down, Louise-chan," She said, "Have dinner with us!"

"Ah," Louise said, eyeing the girls seated around the table warily.

Konoka, she was certain, was harmless enough, the girl practically _glowed_ with warmth and friendliness, reminding Louise a bit of her elder sister, Cattleya. Yue was hard to get a read on, but did not seem overtly threatening, and Louise felt a kinship with the girl for their shared shortness; her friend Nodoka was plainly a very shy girl, shy to the point where she hid her eyes behind her bangs. The last girl though, with the odd out-from-the-side-of-head hairdo and the insanely long sword, something about her made Louise nervous.

"Are you rejecting Lady Konoka's food?" Setsuna said, just a hint of edge in her voice.

"No!" Louise said immediately, seating herself quickly at the table, feeling that her fears regarding the last girl being dangerous were _entirely_justified.

"Hm," Yue said, pulling a book out of thin air, before opening it and paging around a bit, "According to my Orbis Sensualum Pictus, you are Louise Valliere, _Destructor__Mundi_. Did the translation spell translate that?"

"Ah," Colbert said while Louise struggled with the pair of sticks the others were using to eat, "No, it didn't."

"I'm not surprised," Yue said, "Essentially it translates to Louise, Destroyer of Worlds."

Louise's brain decided it had had quite enough for the day, and decided to clock out for the night, even if it was only mid-afternoon. She fainted, landing face-first in the Onigiri.


	3. Imperial Guard

AN: The idea for this came from a crossover I found listed elsewhere on . I didn't actually read the thing, but in the characters listed in the blurb, it listed 'Imperial Guard & Louise.' That's the Imperial Guard from Warhammer 40K. As in the Imperial Guard that protects 1 million worlds, and launches crusades with _Billions_ of front line soldiers.

So. Now, for your reading pleasure, Louise summons the Imperial Guard. _All_ of it.

((()))

"_Answer my summons and appear!_"

With a deafening crack, smoke filled the summoning courtyard. And the school halls. And the clearing around the castle. And the forest around the clearing. And the nation of Tristain around that. And the totality of Halkeginia around _that_.

All across Halkeginia, one thought came into the mind of every man, woman, and child.

_Boy_, _it's _crowded _in here_.

Slowly, _very_ slowly as the smoke didn't have much of anywhere to disperse to, except for the upper atmosphere, seeing as how the _lower_ atmosphere was now heavily populated with aircraft, the smoke _did_ gradually dissipate. One and all, the students in the summoning court wriggled in place to try and make themselves comfortable, seeing as how they were suddenly packed in tight with... men?

Men in armor. With guns. _lots_ of men in armor with _lots _of guns. Most of them had _scars_ and considering that for the most part, only their faces was visible, being able to discern that said something about their occupation. That what covered most of the rest of their bodies was _armor_ was also a pretty big clue.

Louise herself found that she was plastered up against the face of a scowling, heavy-set man wearing dark forest-green armor, a heavy cloak with a high collar and no hood clasped with a silver chain, and a thick cigar held in one hand.

Somehow, _he_ did not appear to be in any way discomfitted or cramped by the massive press of (largely armed and armored) humanity occupying the summoning court.

"I," He growled, glaring down at Louise, "Am Ursakar E. Creed, Lord Castellan. Who, girl, are you?"

If Louise had grown up in a house _not_ occupied by Karin of the Heavy Wind, she would have passed out on the spot. As it was, she stuttered.

"I-I am L-louise Francoise de la Blanc de la Valliere," she said, then mumbled under her breath as quickly as she could, "_._"

With that, the young woman grabbed hold of Creed's collar, hauled herself upward, and planted a kiss on his scowling mouth.

A man long experienced with victory in war, and the attendant parades, it was not an experience Creed was at all unfamiliar with, though usually the girls blushed more. Caught in fond reminiscence of days past, Creed did not even consciously notice the runes searing themselves into the back of his left hand. After a few moments passed with no reaction, Louise, disappointed, lowered herself back to the ground, and then looked around, paling slightly.

_Founder_, she thought to herself, _Am I going to have to kiss _all_ of them?_

While the pinkette was still trying to work up the courage, Creed finished reminiscing, then glanced around and frowned.

"Sloppy deployment," He growled, then gestured sharply with the hand not holding the cigar.

All across Halkeginia, those who had appeared, _disappeared_, leaving only memories (and tank-tracks, and walker prints, and impact craters, and craters...) behind.

For a long moment, there was silence.

"How did you do that!" Louise eventually burst out.

"I," Creed said, turning to glare down at her again, "Am a _Tactical_ _Genius_."

((()))

Creed deals with Guiche:

"Now my Valkyrie," The blonde fop proclaimed dramatically, "Go forth and defeat this magical blunt who would claim to be a noble!"

The Valkyrie advanced; Creed, unimpressed, took a drag at his cigar, causing Louise to wonder _again_ how it was he always had one lit and ready at hand, then gestured at the bronze golem.

Suddenly, a five meter tall bipedal machine was revealed within the Valkyrie, which promptly exploded as something far larger than it was present inside, scattering bronze shrapnel about the Vestri court. The bipedal machine gave the dumbstruck blonde noble a gentle kick; which for a machine of that size translated to knocking the fop across the courtyard, into blissful unconsciousness.

"Good work Sergeant," Creed declared, projecting his voice clearly without needing to raise it in the least, "That will be all."

"Yes, _Sir!_" The man atop the bipedal machine said, saluting sharply, before walking the machine around a corner of the castle, at which point it disappeared.

The onlooking students gawked.

((()))

Creed deals with Foquet.

The thief silently watched as her golem, not silently at all, battered its way into the Academy Vault.

"Attention," A loud voice suddenly declared from the courtyard below, "Foquet of the Crumbling Earth, I have been directed by the planetary Governor to apprehend you. I command you to surrender in the name of the Holy Imperium of Man!"

Foquet blinked, then turned to stare down at the, admittedly rather impressive man, who was staring up at her as he took a pull on his cigar. On the whole, Foquet respected the man, seeing as how he took absolutely no crap from nobles whatsoever, and didn't give a damn what they threatened him with. Unfortunately, she couldn't allow him to interfere with her own work, so hopefully he could be made to see reason.

"Apprehend me?" She shouted down at him, "You and what army?"

"This army," An oddly filtered voice suddenly whispered in her ear.

Foquet, the most famed and feared thief in all of Halkeginia, most certainly did _not_ shriek like a little girl. She _did_ spin around in place, bringing her wand to bear on the unexpected threat. A threat which promptly relieved her of her wand, and came in the form of a man clad head to toe in an utterly skintight black suit, holding the largest pistol she had ever seen, which was aimed unwaveringly at the center of her forehead.

Unarmed, Foquet stared at the man for a long, _long_ moment, hoping desperately that he would flinch, look away, _anything_ that would give her an opening. He didn't move though, Foquet didn't think he was even _breathing._

"I surrender," She said reluctantly, raising her arms helplessly.

((()))

Creed deals with Wardes:

"Boy," Creed ground out, _Death itself_ seeming to reside in his voice and gaze, "Kidnapping and using Warp Sorcery on an Imperial Governor is a _Capital_ offense."

Wardes groaned in aggravation, turning away from the priest and his would-be-bride to stare at the Imperial Noble.

"I left you in Tristain," Wardes ground out, "Without any form of air transport. How the _hell _ did you get to Albion?"

"Thunderhawk," Creed ground out, "Now surrender, and I will hand you over to the courts, rather than execute you immediately."

"I think no-AIEEE!" Wardes exclaimed, as he reached for his sword-wand, and instead found an elite Storm Trooper in its holster, who promptly drove a chainsword into the traitorous count's chest, splattering blood and viscera all across the altar and priest.

((()))

Creed deals with the Reconquista army.

"So son," Creed said, chewing on his cigar (_where did he Get those,_ Louise screamed in her mind) as he stared out over the approaching Reconquista army from the castle of Albion's walls, "I understand you're in need of an army."

"That would be true," Prince Wales said, "I don't suppose you would happen to have one tucked away somewhere?"

"Well," Creed said, turning to face the prince with a positively _terrifying_ grin, "Now that you mention it..."

Below, a wall of massive, exceedingly heavily armed tanks rolled out from behind... Wales wasn't really certain _what_ the box-like metal vehicles had been concealed behind, but they were there now.

A thunderous roar of cannons echoed over the plain below, and the Reconquista army, more or less, ceased to exist.

((()))

Creed deals with Joseph of Gallia:

Creed stared out at the army of golems that Joseph had fielded and snorted in derision.

"Bah," He said, "Mine's bigger," then stepped aside, revealing his deployment for the battle.

How a leviathan of a machine taller than Louise's mind could currently comprehend had managed to hide behind him, she was not certain, but she had learned enough from her time with Creed, at this point, to instinctively squint her eyes as close to shut as she could, and clap her hands over her ears to protect them against the forthcoming deafening sounds.

"++CORPUS FINIS+MACHINA," The massive war machine bellowed in a harsh metallic tone as it stepped forward, a single massive stride carrying it over and a dozen yards past Louise, "MAGNUS+SANCTUS METALLUM+POTESTAS OMNISSIAH,"

Its words paused for a moment as one of its arms came to bear on the battle line of golems. On instinct, Louise raised her arms to shield her eyes as best she could while keeping her hands in place over her ears.

Something _screamed_, as a torrent of white-hot light slashed through the rank of golems, vaporizing all it touched instantly, the beam so bright, that Louise could literally see it _through her arms._

"OMNISSIAH VULT," The machine continued, "DEATH TO THE ENEMIES OF THE MACHINE GOD."

Then it moved forward, and fired again, this time from both arms, and the King of Gallia's was no more.

((()))

AN: I like this idea. It's too cracky to ever be a real story, but makes for good humor, I think.

((()))

OMAKE: Creed deals with Failbaddon.

"I HAVE YOU NOW, CREED!" The Chaos champion screamed in triumph, "NO BANEBLADES FOR YOU THIS TIME!"

"Ah, Abaddon," Creed said, shaking his head and sighing in disappointment as he discarded the butt of his spent cigar, "Will you never learn, that you cannot defeat a Tactical Genius?"

Acting purely on instinct, Abaddon dove to the side, spinning in place to face whatever was behind him.

Behind him, was a diminutive little girl, who could barely be a meter and a half tall, wearing nothing but simple white clothing and a cloak, and carrying only a simple stick in the way of weapons.

"THIS?" Abaddon said in disbelief, staring at the tiny, _pink haired_, human in front of him, "THIS PATHETIC ANDROGYNOUS CHILD IS WHAT YOU SEEK TO DESTROY ME WITH, CREED?"

The girl's pink eyebrow twitched, and somewhere, deep within his blackened, self-deluded heart, Abaddon felt a twinge of fear.

Then the girl raised her stick, and spoke the last word Abaddon would ever hear.

"EXPLOSION!"

((()))

AN: Sorry about missing last week's update; my computer has been acting like some sort of half-dead thing. It may continue to disrupt my posting schedule, but don't worry, I _am_ still writing, even if it doesn't show up as much.


	4. Kushina Uzumaki

AN: Something that's been bouncing around in my head for a long time. It's something that I think has a great deal of potential, but I just don't have the time to develop it considering my other projects.

((()))

An explosive detonation rocked the summoning court, scattering smoke and coughing fits throughout. Before the assembled students could even begin to react, however, a long, keening wail overran the echoes of the explosion. It was a scream like none of the students had ever heard before, it spoke of a pain beyond any that the privileged noble children had ever known, beyond anything that they could even _comprehend_.

"_Watashi no akachan?_" The voice cried out in agony, clearly female, "_Watashi no akachan wa dokodesu ka?"_

"Students, stand back," Professor Colbert promptly asserted, moving through the dense cloud of smoke, "Miss Tabitha, please remove the smoke."

The tiny bluenette he had addressed nodded sharply, and a single sweep of her staff conjured up a fierce gust of wind, sweeping the majority of the smoke out of the courtyard.

"HEALER TO THE SUMMONING COURT!" Colbert roared before the other students could even begin to see what, or _who_ had just been summoned.

"_WATASHI NO AKACHAN WA DOKODESU KA?"_ Demanded the female voice more forcefully, before breaking off in a coughing fit.

As the smoke was cleared, the Tristainian students were finally able to see the source of the shouting; a battered woman laying haphazardly in a pool of red. It took some of the students quite some time to realize just what the woman was laying in, but for those more seasoned, such as Tabitha, it was obvious that the woman was lying in a pool formed by both her own hair, and her own _blood_.

Directly before the woman, Louise Francoise de la Blanc de la Valliere stood, gibbering silently down at the being that she had summoned. The other students were far too decent to see what _she_ could, but from her perspective, and that of Jean Colbert, it was impossible to miss the woman's injuries. Her abdomen had been run through, leaving intestines organs, and even bits of bone showing; her legs were near utterly still, not so much as twitching, and moved only by the frantic breathing and cries as the woman continued to wail in a tongue that none present understood.

"Miss Valliere," Colbert said urgently, "Come here at once."

Louise gave no response, continuing to stare, mind blank, at the gored woman.

"_Miss Valliere!_" Colbert said firmly, then reached out to rap her over the head with his staff when she continued to not respond.

"Yes Professor Colbert?" Louise said, her response mechanical, her mind still in shut-down.

"You must complete the binding ritual," Colbert said urgently, "Your magic may be the only chance she has of surviving until such time as the healers arrive."

Louise just shook her head slightly; Colbert grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to meet his gaze.

"Louise Valliere," He said firmly, furious purpose in his eyes, "If you do not do as I say, _this woman __will die._"

Louise nodded shakily, then staggered to the woman and dropped to her knees beside her.

"_Watashi no akachan wa dokodesu ka?"_ The woman asked again, but now even the shell-shocked Louise could tell that she was weakening.

Louise shook her head, then raised her wand and began to incant, barely avoiding hysteria.

"P-pentagon of the five elements, please bless this humble creature and make it my familiar."

Then she tapped the woman's forehead with her wand, hesitated for a moment, then leaned down and kissed her.

Someone in the crowd began a wolf-whistle, but a sharp gesture from Colbert set the boy's hair on fire, and none other dared speak.

Upon the instant that the _very brief and awkward_ kiss ended, the woman gasped, eyes flying wide, and her entire body spasming; the others were too distant, but Louise and Colbert could _feel_ the magic working within and upon the woman's body. Every muscle above the woman's wound tensed, and after the initial moment of reaction, the woman's face became as stone, wholly grim and utterly unrevealing of any emotion, any _humanity_, whatsoever.

Colbert blinked, and the woman had Louise by the throat; her right hand holding the back of the tiny pinkette's neck, the left holding a short, broad knife with a ring at the base of the hilt to her throat.

"_Anata wa watashi ni nani o shimashita ka?" _She demanded forcefully, hard purpose in her eyes, "_Nani o shita nda?"_

Louise began to have a full-blown panic attack, trembling violently within the woman's grip; Colbert readied himself to act, old, misremembered reflexes forcing him to overcome the shocking and abrupt change between grieving woman, and hard-faced killer. Action on his part proved unnecessary, however, as the magic that Louise completed its work, engraving a set of runes into the back of the woman's left hand.

With the magic's work completed, it faded, and the woman drained of strength, passing out. Then the healers arrived, circling about the grievously wounded woman, and edging out Louise and Colbert. Colbert laid a gentle, but firm, hand on the trembling pinkette, and carefully guided her away from the cluster of water mages.

"That will be the end of this Spring's Summoning Rites," He announced firmly to the other students, using a Voice of Command that they had never heard from him before, "I am _quite_ certain that you all have other things to do, while I attend to Miss Valliere and her familiar."

The students fled before the force of his presence, though Tabitha gave him a long, calculating look before she departed with her redheaded friend. Colbert spared them little thought; his mind filled with the image of the runes he had seen engrave themselves into the woman's hand.

In another time, in another place, he may not have recognized them. But as they had appeared, on the hand that was _holding a knife to the throat of one of his students_, there was no way he could fail to make the connection.

Louise had summoned the Gandalfr, the Left Hand of God.

((()))

Louise Valliere was terrified. She had been afraid before; around her mother, fear was more or less a daily fact of life, but she had never encountered anything like _this_ before. More than half dazed, she tremulously raised her hands to her throat, doing her best to assure herself that it was still intact, and more importantly, that her _blood was still inside her_.

_How had that woman still been alive after losing so much blood?_

Part her knew that not _all_ of the red had been blood, some of it had been hair, _blood red hair_, but her mind on the whole was beyond the point of logical distinctions. She shivered again, wrapping her arms around herself, then realized that someone was gently pushing her down onto a bed. Turning her attention to the outside world, she discovered it to be Jean Colbert, her favorite professor, though his countenance was far more grim than she was accustomed to.

"Professor?" She said weakly, "What..." She fumbled for words for a few moments before managing to finish, "Wha-what did I do?"

"I am not entirely certain at this point, Miss Valliere," Colbert said gently, "I suspect you summoned that woman from a battlefield where she had just been mortally wounded. It is understandably that she would react in a rather _forceful_ manner to having magic used on her body unexpectedly, but do not worry. We will keep a close watch on her, both for her health, and for ours, and perhaps when she is no longer on death's door, we will be able to understand what has happened."

Louise nodded weakly in response.

"Try to get some rest, Miss Valliere," Colbert said, "I'll take care of things.

Louise nodded again, before essentially passing out, emotionally overwhelmed by the sudden chain of events.

((()))

Colbert looked down at his most dedicated, but least successful student for a long moment, silently working out his next course of action. If the woman survived (and if she truly was the Gandalfr, he very much doubted she wouldn't), then there would be consequences resulting from this. _Massive_ consequences. He would need to speak with Osmond; he would need to inform Karin, and most likely he or Osmond would need to send word to the Princess regarding a Void user in her realm.

First, however, he would need to be _certain_ of what he had seen, and even if he could feel deep certainty in his bones, there was no excuse for sloppiness. He remembered the book, and where it was kept, so it was off to the library with him.

((()))

Tabitha slipped silently into the infirmary, bringing a small enchanted mirror with her. Her friend Kirche was desperately curious to see what was going on with the strange red-headed woman that had been summoned, but _utterly_ lacking in the stealth skills necessary to remain unnoticed around the healers. The mirror, and its matched pair in Kirche's hands, would allow her to be 'present' in spite of this.

Tabitha herself had made a veritable _art_ form out of being unnoticed; not that it was altogether difficult when surrounded by young nobles with oversized egos each trying to exalt themselves over their peers as best they were able. Thus, she spent much of the night sitting quietly in a corner of the infirmary, occasionally glancing up at the Healers working their magic on the injured woman.

Kirche may have suffered from curiosity, but that was _nothing_ to the intense interest Tabitha held towards any woman who would fight while in _that_ condition.

((()))

"Osmond," Colbert shouted, knocking, _hard_ on the headmaster's office door, "We need to talk, _now_."

The door swung open, revealing not the long-bearded old man that Colbert had been expecting, but a _gorgeous_ young woman clad in a modest robe. For a moment, Jean teetered upon the brink of distraction, but death had passed too close that afternoon, and he forced himself to concentrate.

"The headmaster will see you now," The young woman said, favoring Colbert with a gentle smile.

"Thank you, miss...?" Colbert replied.

"Longueville, milord," The woman replied, stepping out of the doorway and gesturing Colbert inside, "The Headmaster was kind enough to take me on as his secretary just recently. And you are"

"Jean Colbert," He said as he entered, waving dismissively, "No need for 'milord' or any such thing, 'Professor' will be just fine."

"Thank you, Professor," Longueville said courteously, moving swiftly ahead of him to open the inner office door, "Will you need anything further?"

"In this instance," Colbert said sadly, "Nothing but privacy. Something has gone awry with one of my students, and I must discuss it with the headmaster."

Longueville simply nodded, bowing slightly as Colbert passed into the inner office. Inside, Colbert found Osmond pretending to sleep; scowling, he waited for Longueville to close the door behind him, before conjuring a small mass of clay, and tossing it into the old man's face, ending the charade rather roughly.

"This is no time to sleep, old man," Colbert growled at the faux-spluttering headmaster, "One of the student's summonings arrived grievously injured, and it could cause all kinds of trouble with her family. Activate your wards, we must speak of this privately."

Osmond sat back in his chair, and eyed Colbert warily for a moment through his clay-smeared face, before removing the muck with a single sharp gesture from his staff, and activating a glowing series of runes that circled the entire office with another.

"You have my attention, Colbert," Osmond said gravely, "I'd threaten my displeasure if you've disturbed me for something trivial, but I supremely doubt you have done such."

"Indeed," Colbert said grimly, "Today, Louise Valliere summoned a grievously wounded foreign woman, fresh from a battle I have little doubt, during the Springtime Summoning Ritual. So wounded, in fact, that I compelled Louise to bind the woman promptly, in hopes that her magic would allow the woman to endure until such time as the healers could arrive."

Colbert paused, and took a deep breath before continuing.

"The woman is the Gandalfr, the Left Hand of God. Louise is a Void Mage."

For the first time in his life, Colbert saw Old Osmond rendered speechless. The man blinked, fumbed for his pipe, dropped it, then blinked again. Then he shook his head, and leveled an intense glare upon Colbert.

"Jean Colbert," He said forcefully, "Are you _absolutely certain_ of this?"

"Quite," Colbert said gravely, nodding his head sharply, "I was certain from the moment I saw the runes engrave themselves upon the woman's hand while she held a knife to Miss Valliere's throat. I made a swift visit to the library to confirm it nonetheless. I have the book with me, if you wish to inspect the record, and the runes on the woman's hand, for yourself."

Osmond stood, displaying a spryness he rarely allowed other to see, generally preferring to leave the impression that he had been rendered largely infirm by his age.

"While I do not doubt your word on so serious an affair," Osmond said, already moving around his desk and deactivating the wards, "Something such as this, one must see for himself."

"I understand completely, headmaster," Colbert said, opening the door, and allowing the Headmaster to precede him out of his office.

"Headmaster?" Longueville called inquiringly as they moved through the outer office.

"With me, Miss Longueville," Osmond said, "It appears that you will be entering the thick of things from the start, as it were. We are off to the infirmary."

((()))

It had been less than an hour since the woman had been brought to the infirmary, and the healers almost barred them entrance, regardless of Osmond's position as Headmaster. The chief Healer, however, was a younger man who had never seen war, and the combined glare of Colbert and Osmond was more than enough to cow the man, though he did require them to stay out of the way.

It took some minutes to gain a clear view of the injured woman's hand _without_ asking the Healers to get out of the way, or display it for them, but both men had long since learned to be patient, and Longueville was hardly in a position to interfere if her superior did not.

"There can be little doubt," Osmond said gravely, passing the book with the image of the Gandalfr runes back to Colbert, before turning to his secretary, "Longueville, please make a sketch of this woman's runes, as best you are able. If necessary, wait until the Healers are finished, and you are able to acquire a more reliable perspective."

"Yes, Headmaster," Longueville said, nodding dutifully.

"You said she was summoned by young Valliere?" Osmond asked Colbert, who nodded, "Then we must go and speak with her at once."

"Right this way," Colbert said, leading Osmond to the far side of the infirmary, where the youngest member of the Valliere family lay, fast asleep.

"Was she injured?" Osmond asked.

"No," Colbert said, shaking his head, "Just overwhelmed; I brought her here in case she suffers a fit when she rouses."

"Reasonable, I suppose," Osmond said with a nod, "And also will keep her in close proximity to her new familiar, should the woman waken and prove difficult. Have you contacted Karen yet?"

"No," Colbert said, "I decided to speak with you first."

"Thank you," Osmond said nodding, "I suggest you go and do so, while I contact the Princess."

((()))

Louise awoke feeling disoriented; realizing that she was in an unfamiliar place did not help alleviate her confusion. It was dark, but also calm, and it only took her a few moments to realize that she was in the infirmary, and remember _why_. Her hands instinctively rose to her throat, terrifying memory of being held at knife-point welling up within her.

For a long moment, that memory held her in an iron grip of fear, but she had been taught for _long_ years that Valliere's did not give into fear, and she forced it away. Instead, she climbed out of the infirmary bed, and went to look for her new, _violent_ familiar. It wasn't difficult to find the woman; she was laying in the only bed that had a servant seated beside it, keeping watch.

To Louise's considerable surprise, the maid was also reading a book; though after a moment's thought, she decided it made sense. It would be difficult enough to stay awake, and a servant able to keep herself occupied with such a thing would be less likely to fall asleep; simply sitting there and staring at an unconscious woman could only encourage somnolescence.

"Ahem," Louise said quietly from behind the maid, who jumped slightly, before turning to see Louise.

Upon recognizing the student's uniform, the pretty young woman swiftly stood and turned to face Louise, bowing slightly.

"Yes, milady?" She asked respectfully.

"What is the condition of my familiar?" Louise asked quietly.

"The healers expect her to live, milady," The maid said quietly, "They said that she is possessed of remarkable resilience, but set me to watch her through the night, particularly her coloration, in case they missed some internal bleeding. Her spine had been severed, but they were able to heal it along with the other injuries, though she will have to learn how to walk again. And..."

The maid trailed off, worry evident in her voice and on her face.

"Well, spit it out," Louise said, some irritation leaking into her voice.

"It seems that she had just given birth," The maid said, her voice even fainter than before, "Within _hours_ of the summoning. She went into battle directly thereafter."

Louise turned to gaze upon the woman's face, silent horror welling up within her as she studied the red-head's exhausted features. Now, she found herself much less upset by the woman's violent reaction; bad enough that she had been mortally wounded, but having gone into _battle_ just after giving birth?

Louise's mind was too overwhelmed trying to wrap itself around such a thing to encompass much of anything else at all. So much so that she scarcely noticed as the maid gently guided her into the chair that the maid herself had been sitting in, before collecting a second chair for herself, and sitting beside the diminutive Valliere.

Confusing, contradictory thoughts of success, failure, knives held to throats, and women being forced to fight immediately after birth washed through Louise's mind, until she passed out in the chair, and slept through the rest of the night.

((()))

Kushina did not dream, exactly; she was far too deeply submerged into unconsciousness, the healers having laid a spell of sleep upon her, pushing her mind even deeper into slumber than her own trauma and exhaustion had already driven her. Some things, however, run deeper within a person than their mind, and in Kushina, that something reached out, yearning for her husband, her son, for her _family_.

Neither were available for her, but a new bond had been formed, though neither of those involved truly understood it, and her 'call' reached across that bond, to find a lonely sole yearning for comfort respond.

((()))

Siesta watched silently, completely bewildered, as golden links of chain snaked out from the redheaded woman's body, wrapped gently around the pinkette's, and then tucked them both in to bed together, the older's arms wrapped around the younger as though she were a small child. A hysterical part of Siesta's mind noted that the student's tiny stature made it a more apt comparison than would seem appropriate for a sixteen year old girl.

Once the movement stopped, and the chains faded away, Siesta snapped out of her shock, and rushed to summon the healer assigned to the night shift.

((()))

AN: In case it wasn't obvious, the woman is Kushina Uzumaki, from the Naruto series, summoned after being stuck through by the Kyuubi's claw, but before she dies, on the night that the 9-tails was sealed into Naruto. There's a character with the drive, moral fiber, and power, to make things _interesting_ in the ZnT setting.


	5. Kushina Uzumaki pt 2

AN: Back by both continued creative Inertia, as well as popular demand, more Summoning Kushina. I had a question about what Kushina was saying when summoned in the first chapter; pretty much she was demanding to know where she was, where her baby was, where her husband was, etc. I'm making liberal use of Google Translate for this fic, because I want the language barrier to actually *feel* like a language barrier.

((()))

The next morning, at breakfast, Colbert received a message from the infirmary, requesting his presence at his earliest possible convenience. The wording of the message suggested importance, but not urgency, so Colbert finished his breakfast, but made his way directly to the infirmary thereafter.

Within, he found that a privacy screen had been set up around the summoned woman's bed. The healer on shift spotted him shortly after he entered, and waved for him to join her as she moved towards the enclosed space.

"You won't believe what the maid we had watching her through the night saw," The healer said, and just grinned as Colbert directed an inquiring glance at her by way of response.

They reached the enclosed area, and the healer opened the curtain briefly so that the pair of them could step in, and then closed it behind them. Colbert blinked in surprise at what he found within. Pink hair mixed with red, the Valliere scion resting on top of her older (and substantially more fully grown) familiar, being cradled like an overly large infant, with the blanket covering the both of them. The situation _might_ have been considered cute, ignoring the breach of social ettiquette, until one counted for the fact that Louise seemed to be having some sort of nightmare, and was shivering in the woman's arms.

Then the redhead reached up and began to subconsciously stroke Louise's hair, and the girl's trembling subsided. Then the whole situation _definitely_ counted as cute. Colbert watched the sleeping pair for a few more seconds; when nothing changed, he turned his attention to the _other_ young woman who had already been present within the enclosure.

"Miss... Siesta, I believe it was?" He inquired gently.

The maid turned to look at him, and Colbert winced. Her eyes were bloodshot; _painfully_ bloodshot, and he recognized the desperate drive in her haggard expression that was common to exhausted soldiers on watch, who were more afraid of what their commanding officers would do to them if they fell asleep, then what would happen should they come under attack. She blinked, and he could _see_ her mentally playing his words back, before managing to form a coherent response.

"Yes, Professor Colbert," The young woman said, her voice scratchy, "Siesta of Tarbes."

"She was the one who saw how this happened last night," The healer said to Colbert, before turning to face the maid, "Tell him what you saw."

"Yes milord," Siesta said tiredly, bowing to the healer before turning back to Colbert, "I was tasked to keep watch for any change during the night," She said tiredly, "Partway through the night, Lady Valliere woke, and came to check on her familiar. When I informed her of the woman's status, she became... distraught, and I ushered her into a chair, where she sat until she fell asleep some time, perhaps a half an hour, later. Less than an hour after Lady Valliere woke, her familiar, still sleeping, created some sort of chains, they glowed as though golden, though they didn't quite seem wholly _real_. The chains collected Lady Valliere, and tucked her into bed with the woman, fading away once they were much as you see them now."

Colbert looked the maid in the eyes, searching for any hint of deceit or exaggeration, but all he found was fatigue, and a certain degree of relief.

"Thank you," Colbert said, smiling gently at the young woman, "Why don't you go-"

He was cut off by a groan from the bed, and his attention was immediately upon the sleeping pair. One of whom was apparently rousing; the redhead's eyes were opening, though she clearly was only partially conscious.

"_Nani?_" She said, and Siesta started, violently, splitting Colbert's attention between the two.

The redhead sat up somewhat visibly, continuing to cradle the young Valliere woman to her chest, eyes quickly appraising her surroundings, dipping down towards Louise, widening in shock for a moment, before turning a harsh glare at Colbert.

"_Koko de nani ga okotte iru?"_ She demanded, her voice firm, but low, Colbert suspected she was attempting to avoid waking Louise.

"Ah, ah," The young maid said, "Ah, _Sumimasen ga, anata wa erementaru chiiki kara kita nodesu ka?"_

The woman's attention flickered over to Siesta for a moment; Colbert turned a surprised gaze upon the pretty maid, while the healer just gaped at her.

"_Hai. Watashi wa Uzugakure no jōnin Uzumaki Kushina, Yondaime Hokage no tsumadesu. Dare ga watashi o koko ni motarashita?"_

Siesta went very, _very_ pale; the healer moved to speak, but Colbert shut her off with a sharp gesture, giving the maid a moment to compose herself before she turned to speak to Colbert, still pale, but only shaking slightly.

"My grandfather," Siesta said weakly, "Was not from Halkeginia. He came from a place he called the Elemental Nations, and he spoke the same tongue as this woman. He told many stories, and tried to teach all of his children, and grandchildren, the language, though I am somewhat rusty, as it has been years since I last used it."

"I take it she is from these lands then?" Colbert said gently, resting a reassuring hand on Siesta's shoulder.

"Y-yes, Professor Colbert," Siesta said, becoming more tense, rather than less, as she continued, "She says her name is Kushina, of the Uzumaki clan. Some of the stories my grandfather told spoke of the Uzumaki clan; they were from a minor nation, but the most powerful noble family within it."

"A duchy, perhaps?" Colbert asked, suspecting that the maid knew more of the technicalities of noble rank than most commoners.

"Perhaps," Siesta said, shrugging, "I am not certain, but if so, the Uzumaki family would have held the Ducal title. Th-there's more though. You have to understand, titles were not passed down from father to son, or even mother to daughter; the Elemental Nations were a militant society, and they were ranked based upon their prowess in battle, stealth, and guile. She has claimed the rank of Jounin, which would be equivalent to either a Triangle or Square class mage, I cannot really say with any certainty based upon the stories I remember."

The girl was rambling; it was not at all hard for Colbert to recognize the signs of great stress, especially considering how drastically the maid's usually far more passive demeanor had changed.

"What else did she say," Colbert said gently, but _firmly,_ taking Siesta's chin in his hand and tugging it around to make her look directly at him.

"Ah," Siesta said, glancing at the redhead, who was gazing impassively at the exchange, before turning to look up at Colbert fearfully, worrying her lower lip with her teeth for a moment, then finally forcing herself to speak.

"I-if I understand her correctly," She half-stuttered, "She says she is married to the Fourth King of Konoha, which is the largest and most powerful of the Elemental Nations."

"Thank you," Colbert said quietly, closing his eyes for a moment, and forcing himself to process swiftly, as though he were in a potentially lethal situation, which in a way, he was.

"What does she wish to know?" Colbert asked, reaching backwards without looking to grab the healer, who was attempting to slip out of the enclosure.

"Ah," Siesta said, visibly relaxing as the subject was changed, "She wishes to know who brought her here."

"It was Miss Valliere who summoned her, though the ritual was expected to summon a random creature, not a human," Colbert said, pulling up a chair and seating himself facing the redhead, "I am willing to answer most likely any question she has, please tell her this."

"Yes, professor," Siesta said, nodding sharply, before turning to the foreign woman, "_Louise Valliere, anata ga hoji suru hitotsu wa, anata o shōkan hitotsudeatta_. _Colbert-sensei hoka no shitsumon ni kotaete shiawase ni narimasu._"

((()))

"_Any_ question?" Kushina asked sharply, subtly shifting her grip on the girl in her arms beneath the blanket.

To most, it would appear she was simply shifting her posture, it would take a skilled observer to recognize that she was also checking the young woman's body for weapons or seals. She found nothing but a narrow wooden dowel, one that had more the feel of an implement than a tool. Her shift did cause the girl to stir slightly, however, though she did not wake, simply burrowing further into Kushina's chest, whimpering slightly in her sleep.

"Ah," The young woman, some sort of domestic servant, said nervously, "He say, ah, _said_, 'most any.' You have more questions?"

"I do," Kushina said, nodding sharply, "First off, if I was brought here unintentionally, how do these people intend to return me?"

The pretty girl, who Kushina could tell, on closer inspection, bore at least some degree of ancestry amongst the people of the Elemental Nations, exchanged words with the balding warrior in their tongue, the man looking at her the entire time. Kushina saw familiar things in his gaze, the emptiness of heart that came from a killer who did not enjoy his profession, the hidden edge that made it clear he had no intention of abandoning his martial skills, however much he loathed their uses, and a fierce protective instinct. If not for his clearly foreign features, he could easily have passed as a Shinobi of Konoha.

"Colbert-sensei says that at this time, they have no idea," The maid said, her voice trembling slightly with fear, "It has been six thousand years since a human was last made a Familiar, and he does not know whether or not he or she was summoned, or simply recruited."

Kushina nodded sharply again, staring the man in the eye for a long moment before responding.

"I will expect to be shown the seal work involved in this summoning," She said, "And he _will_ tell me what is involved with _this_," She raised her left hand to show the glyphs engraved there, "If this seal had been attempted a single day earlier, the result could have been destruction beyond what most men can conceive."

Kushina closed her eyes this time, while the old warrior and the young maid spoke again, taking the time to flex her chakra within her coils, testing her reserves and control, to see how she had recovered from her ordeal, and if she had been drugged with a suppressant. Her chakra was low, at least compared to what was normal for her as an Uzumaki, and a Jinchuuriki to boot, but was about double what most Jounin could hope to muster, so she determined it 'adequate' for the time being. It also responded readily to her will; supple, flexible, flowing fluidly, just as she maintained herself.

When the short conversation between 'Colbert-sensei' and the maid finished, Kushina opened her eyes again, and glanced between the two.

"Ah," The maid said hesitantly, taking Kushina's glance as a sign to speak, "Colbert-sensei says that he will be happy to show you the summoning circle, as well as any literature in the library regarding the seal on your hand. He also said that he had Lady Valliere complete the ritual in spite of the unexpected circumstances, because he hoped her _magic_ going into your body would help you survive."

"_Magikku?_" Kushina asked, not familiar with the word.

"Ah," The young woman said, somewhat flustered, "It is like what you use to do ninjutsu?"

"Chakra," Kushina said, turning her attention back to the girl in her lap.

Closer inspection revealed that the girl was, in fact, more of a young woman, one of those who simply did not visibly age much beyond the age of twelve; Kushina well recognized the signs from her own pubescent cycle; it was not until she had begun to _truly_ push her own endurance training that she had lost the last of her baby fat. Beyond her childish appearance, however, was the way that the girl had essentially jabbed her maternal instincts with a Zanbatou. Her thoughts attempted to turn to her actual, new-born son, but Kushina ruthlessly suppressed that train of thought, there was no time for it now. She needed _time_, and information, to understand the situation she found herself in.

"This young woman," Kushina asked the maid, "Valliere Louise, she has her own quarters within this facility?"

"Ah, yes, Lady Uzumaki," She replied, "As the daughter of a _Duke, _er, small Daimyo? She usually occupies quarters on the most luxurious level of the student dormitories."

"You have been there before," Kushina asked by implied statement.

"H-hai, I am one of the castle's general staff, and have cleaned there sometimes."

"Your name?" Kushina asked.

"Siesta of Tarbes, Lady Uzumaki," Siesta said.

"Tell this warrior," She nodded towards Colbert, "That I require time alone in a more private location," Kushina said, "And once you have slept, I wish for you to come and serve as my translator."

Siesta began conveying her words to Colbert, and as soon as Kushina saw him begin to nod in the affirmative, she moved to climb out of bed.

This was when she discovered that her legs no longer responded properly to her commands. Considering that she recalled her spine being severed, she was nor surprised; after a few moment's experimentation, receiving spastic twitches in response, Kushina decided she would have to learn to walk again, but was not paralyzed.

"Ah," Siesta said, "Professor Colbert says that he will send for porters and a stretcher to help you to Lady Valliere's room."

"No need," Kushina said flatly, switching her grip on the Valliere girl, to a one-handed one and hooking first one, then the other, of her legs up over her shoulders in a startling display of flexibility, "I can see to my own transportation."

((()))

Few were passing through the corridors between the infirmary and the top level of the student dormitory at that hour of the morning, but those who did, would behold something they would not soon forget. The redheaded woman that Louise Valliere had summoned the day before, her legs folded up alongside her body with her knees hooked over her shoulders to hold them in place, was swinging along the corridors, and climbing up the stairwells, on clearly-magical chains, her diminutive summoner clasped in her arms.

To the serving staff, it was simply an interesting quirk of a newly-arrived noble; the fact that the woman was being followed by Siesta, one of their own, and Colbert, widely recognized by the commoner staff as their greatest advocate amongst the nobility, was of roughly similar interest. To Nobles, both faculty and students, it was a completely bewildering sight, especially for those, like Kirche von Anhault Zerbst, who realized that the woman was not using a wand, staff, or indeed any form of focus to control the chains.

Aside from Kirche, who had caught sight of the older redhead when she was just entering her quarters across from Louise's, none of them received any form of acknowledgment. Kirche simply received a quick visual appraisal, and a respectful nod, before the strange woman disappeared into the Valliere's quarters, not to be seen again for another day.

((()))

Arrangements were made for Siesta to stay within the Valliere's quarters, so that she could be on hand to translate at all times; Siesta was of mixed disposition about the move. As she was explicitly placed in the service of Ladies Valliere and Uzumaki, she would no longer be subject to the command of other nobles; on the other hand, she would be in easy range of collateral damage should diplomacy (with she herself serving as the _only_ available translation) break down.

Her worries were rapidly diffused, however, once she was alone (or close enough, considering the Valliere scion was still asleep) with Uzumaki Kushina, as the woman's demeanor changed entirely.

"Siesta," Kushina said gently once she had tucked Louise into bed, and sat down herself, "Why are you afraid of me?"

Siesta twitched, trembling slightly, as she looked down and away from the older woman, resisting the urge to start fidgeting nervously.

"Y-you are nobility, Lady Kushina," Siesta stuttered, "I am a commoner."

She said nothing more, and silence, aside from Louise's soft snores, reigned for long moments.

"Siesta, look at me," Kushina said quietly, and after a moment's hesitation, Siesta did.

In Kushina's eyes, she found fierce determination mixed with harsh honesty.

"It is true, that I am from a noble clan," Kushina said, her voice strong with purpose, "And I am _proud_ of what my family accomplished before they were wiped out in the Third Shinobi War. But that means _nothing_ in regards to my value relative to yours. I am Jounin, and when I am on a mission, I expect my subordinates to obey my orders promptly, but I do not believe that my rank, or my clan, or my _anything_ makes me somehow inherently 'better' than them, or you, or anyone else. There is a kind of worthlessness a person can have, but that is _earned_, when they choose to be a bandit, or a traitor, or a tyrant, and I do not see that kind of worthlessness in your eyes."

Kushina inhaled deeply, and took Siesta's hands into her own before speaking again.

"_You have nothing to fear from me_," Kushina said fiercely.

And Siesta believed her.

((()))

When Louise woke again, she was in her own bed, in her own room, and for several long minutes, she lay there, wondering if the last day had been a dream, wondering if she _wanted_ it to be a dream. Was it better to have a familiar, but one who was some crazy commoner woman with knives, or to still be the Zero?

Then a faint _thump_ disturbed her thoughts, and she sat up and saw that the woman with the ludicrously long red hair had apparently just fallen to the floor of her room. She had apparently also noticed that Louise was awake, as she was staring right back; Louise flinched, part of her wanting to cringe, but then forced herself to sit up straight, and glare right back. The woman's neutral gaze twisted into a quirk of a grin at Louise's glare, and Louise's glare was downgraded to an irritated scowl.

"Ru-," The woman began, frowned then started again, gesturing towards Louise "R-, R-, Rlouise,Walliere?"

Louise blinked, then realized what the woman was trying to say.

"Yes," Louise said, "I am Louise Valliere."

"Uzumaki Kushina," The woman said, nodding and gesturing towards herself, then bowed slightly, an awkward gesture considering she was half-seated, half-sprawled, on the floor, "_Hajime Mashte_."

"Nice to meet you?" Louise replied uncertainly.

Then the woman smiled warmly at her, conjured a pair of golden chains _without a wand_, and used them to swing up onto Louise's bed. Louise _stared_, eyes wide with shock at the casual display of square-level earth magic. When the chains faded out of existence, she was only left even more confused, as she knew of no kind of magic that could have such an effect, and Louise knew _every single spell_ in the libraries of the Academy, Valliere estate, and non-restricted sections of the Royal Library.

She had tried them all too, just to see if _one_ of them would work. The first few dozen square-level spells she had attempted had caused her to pass out from exhaustion after each attempted casting, and that was when she'd started getting explosive side effects sometimes, which she had seen as an improvement, but unfortunately, things had never progressed further. Uzumaki (such a _strange_ name!) tapping her shoulder brought Louise back to the present, and the woman picked up a part of Louise's blanket.

"Moufu," She said, pointing at the blanket, then handing the portion of blanket over to Louise, and gesturing for the younger woman to speak.

"Moufu?" Louise said, catching on, "Blanket?"

"Blanket?" The other woman said, taking the section of blanket back, and pointing to it meaningfully.

"Blanket," Louise agreed.

"Blanket, Moufu," The woman said, and Louise nodded.

"Blanket, Moufu," Uzumaki said again, gesturing meaningfully towards Louise.

"Moufu, Blanket," Louise said, realizing more fully what the woman intended.

Uzumaki smiled warmly at Louise again, then held up a closed fist.

"Ichi," She said, raising one finger, then another, and another, "Ni, San..."

The next hour passed in a simplistic language lesson, part of Louise found it to be frustrating and, frankly, rather dull, but the woman kept _smiling_ at her. Warm smiles, friendly smiles, _supportive_ smiles, like her older sister, Cattleya, but also different somehow, in a way she couldn't quite understand, that made her heart both ache and tingle deep down.

As the mutual language lesson progressed, she also noticed that her rather spacious quarters no longer felt quite so spacious, mostly because two more beds had been added, one of them fully luxurious as her own, the other a small servant's cot, where the maid who had been keeping watch in the infirmary the night before was sleeping. Louise was not entirely sure what the servant was doing in her quarters, but it made sense for her Familiar to be there, and the quality of her bed was easily explained by the redhead being _a square class mage_, and thus _clearly_ a noble of some consequence.

It was... _different_ spending time with the foreign woman; she clearly had no pre-formed expectations of Louise, no low opinion, nothing.

And Uzumaki kept _smiling_ at her, gentle smiles, tender smiles, encouraging smiles, _affectionate_ smiles.

For some reason that Louise really didn't understand at all, that made her very sad. She tried to hide it, and for a while, she thought she'd succeeded, but when they moved on to exchanging terms for the various parts of the hand, Louise found her hands were getting wet, and realized that she was crying. In the moment of realization, she froze. Instinct kicked in, demanding she put on a strong front, that she _never ever _show weakness, but the whole response was short-circuited when warm arms wrapped around her, and pulled her into a gentle embrace.

"_Anata ga naku ma, sore o dasu, kodomo shin'ainaru, watashi wa anata o hoji shimasu,_" The woman said gently, then began to hum a soothing melody while she gently stroked Louise's hair with one hand, and rubbed her back with the other.

Louise's composure wobbled, her lip trembling as the emotional fallout of a year of scorn, derision, and social isolation from her classmates, frustration and disappointment at her failure in casting spells, as well as her own self-loathing because of said failure, being under threat of death the day before, and then _the very woman who had held a knife to her throat being everything to her that her mother never had, and she so dearly wished for_, it all came crashing down.

The Rule of Steel, the constant demand of strength, shattered within Louise's heart, and she dissolved into delirious sobs and cascades of tears.

((()))

AN: There's something about Louise that makes me want to give her a hug. She does tend to end up having emotional meltdowns when I write her; this time earlier than usual. For those wondering, Kushina's last line there is basically her saying "Let out the tears, I'll hold you."

Also, big news! I'm E-published now; my first short story is up on Smashwords; head over to Smashwords and search 'Kel's Story' to find it; a single dollar to buy, which is the lowest price I could put on it, aside from free. Seriously speaking, I am *flat* broke, less than ten dollars to my name, and as my regular readers may have noticed, I missed two weeks of updates recently. That's because of the difficulties involved in replacing a faulty power supply when you have next to no money, and no job. And for those of you living in partially or fully socialist countries, the government hain't giving me no money either.

So; if you like my writing at all, please support it (and me) by going and paying for the bits that aren't free.


	6. Negi Springfield pt 2

AN: Hah! Bet you didn't expect to see more of this, especially on the same day as another post for this collection!

((()))

The castle staff had needed to add a new table to the Alviss dining hall; the 'Ala Alba' simply had too many members to fit in with the second years. And more kept appearing.

Two more had arrived since the young prince had retired with his companions to the Valliere's quarters the previous night, one of them a massively tall young woman with a very developed figure (who seemed perfectly capable of navigating the Academy without opening her eyes, which no one had yet seen her do), the other appearing to be some sort of stoic with metal fins protruding from her skull.

Currently, they were picking apart the lavish meal the cooks had provided, apparently accustomed to different cuisine, though what exactly they were saying, only Louise and Colbert could understand, as no one else held the benefit of an appropriate translation spell. At least, until a particular maid came out of the kitchen to serve the next course to the table of foreign nobles (and royals). She startled rather sharply when she recognized the tongue they were speaking, and quite a number of the visitors were _far_ too observant to miss that.

"Oh, you understand us, don't you?" Sakurazaki Setsuna said, turning a sharp, but not hostile, gaze upon the young woman, "You're hm, a quarter, perhaps half Japanese?"

"H-hai?" The maid said haltingly, proceeding with excessive caution to place the tray of pastries she had brought out on the guest's table, "Ah, pleased meet you?"

She bowed swiftly, a motion that would have been nothing more than expected to the local nobles, but the members of Ala Alba recognized as bearing a commonality to the bowing of Japanese social custom.

"Oh, wonderful!" Konoe Konoka said, "You can tell us all about what life is like here in Halkeginia, since Louise-chan is..."

She turned to look at the pinkette, who was more or less being spoon fed by Chachamaru, chewing mechanically as her glazed eyes stared off at distant nothings. Nodoka had spent the last few minutes trying to figure out if she had _actually_ seen smoke wafting out of the girl's ears before Chachamaru had given her something to drink.

"Anyways!" Konoka said, turning back to the nervous maid, "Come, sit with us, tell us about your home!"

"Um," The Maid said, clearly struggling to understand properly, "You want, chairs?"

"Negi!" Asuna called, "Can't you see the poor girl needs some help?"

"Oh, of course," Negi said, nodding and drawing his wand, "I'll see to it at once."

The maid began to tremble slightly as Negi turned his attention, and wand upon her, and Asuna suspected that if it was not for Negi's good-natured smile and overall harmless (and _adorable_) appearance, she might have fled. A single quick incantation and wand gesture later, and the girl was blinking with shock, as she found herself able to understand the Ala Alba's table talk with ease.

"Hello!" Konoka said brightly, "I'm Konoe Konoka, pleased to meet you!"

And then she bowed in greeting to the girl, causing her eyes to widen in shock, and most of her higher brain functions to lock up.

"Konoka," Ayase Yue said calmly, "You're breaking too many of her social conventions at once, she doesn't know how to respond."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Konoka said, standing up and gently taking the shocked girl's hand, "Let's go somewhere a bit more private so there's less peer pressure."

Then she lead the girl out of the dining hall, Setsuna (of course) trailing after the pair, her swordcase slung over her shoulder.

"Ten to one they end up in the kitchens," Asuna said with a smile.

"No bet, de-gozaru," Kaede said with a smile, "Konoka-chan always finds the kitchen."

"Sucker bet," Yue agreed, not even looking up from where she was mixing every different kind of juice visible on the table in her cup, "I'm sure she'd love to learn more western cooking for Negi."

"She really doesn't need to," Negi said self-consciously, speaking from where Asuna was ensuring he ate adequately, "I appreciate her Japanese cuisine quite well, she doesn't need to go out of her way for me."

"Says the boy who makes a habit of punching Fate in the face," Asuna said under her breath.

"Ah, excuse me," Louise said, startling everyone at the table except Chachamaru, the others not having noticed that she had snapped out of her reverie, "But isn't Miss Konoka a Noble?"

"Yeah," Asuna said with a nod, "She's the only one of us aside from Negi and me with any kind of title. Why do you ask?"

"What?" Louise said, clearly startled, "But I thought you all were magi?"

"Ninja," Kaede said, raising her hand.

"Gynoid bodyguard/personal servant," Chachamaru said.

"Librarian and Archeologist," Nodoka said meekly.

"Philosopher and Mage Knight," Yue said, before taking a sip of her latest concoction.

"Schoolteacher," Negi said brightly, waving at Louise with a smile.

"I run a paper route," Asuna said, "Konoka and Setsuna are the only ones who aren't either a major part of a club, or have an after school job, but Konoka cooks for us a lot, and Setsuna is Konoka's bodyguard, so I guess that sort of counts."

"But I've seen you using magic!" Louise said accusingly as she pointed at Nodoka.

"Ah, yes?" Nodoka said nervously, "S-so?"

"Allow me to explain," Yue interjected, draining her glass and setting it aside to give Louise a measuring gaze, "Would I be correct in assuming that your society is divided by class, with the Royalty and Nobility being magic users, and the commoners being those incapable of magic?"

"Of course!" Louise said, "As the Founder ordained it!"

"Ah," Yue said, nodding sadly, "You see, in Japan, the nation most of us come from, the nobility is largely defunct, and the Emperor's role is largely ceremonial. Science has made most common magic unnecessary, only Master Magi like Negi are capable of magical feats that science cannot replicate."

"What?" Louise said, clearly completely perplexed.

"Excuse me, young Prince," An unexpected voice came, interrupting any further attempts to explain things to the newest member of Ala Alba, "But could I speak with you for a moment?"

"Oh, certainly," Negi said, turning to face the speaker "I don't believe we've met, mister...?"

"Guiche," The young man, a slender blonde with a rather foppish appearance, said, "The Bronze, of the Gramont family. I'm honored to met you, Prince Springfield."

"Just call me Negi," The young teacher said, waving his hands in some distress, "I'm really not used to being addressed by royal title."

"As you wish, Lord Negi," Guiche said, not noticing the boy's slight wince, "I simply had to ask, how you can keep so many women, who all know of your other... _dalliances_, at the same time, and, in fact, on such good terms with each other?"

Negi opened his mouth to respond, clear lack of understanding on his face, but Asuna rather abruptly appeared between the two of them.

"Excuse me," She said, bright anger in her voice, "But did you just imply that my friends were _loose women_?"

"I had thought that keeping concubines was a common practice in the East," Guiche said, confusion writ clear on his face.

Every conversation, and indeed, all motion, in the hall, came to a halt at the ringing sound of a very _harsh_ slap.

((()))

Twenty minutes later, most of the school's population was assembled in the Vestri court, for the traditional settling of grievances; namely, _dueling_. The students were gossiping, what few teachers present were torn between arguing _with Royalty_, and the school rules which forbade dueling, and desperately wishing that one of the more _decisive_ teachers would show up and take responsibility for things. Even some of the staff were watching, as much because Siesta seemed to be hobnobbing with the nobility and royalty as because of the duel.

Siesta herself was suffering from a severely overloaded brain, as Konoka helped her serve drinks to the assorted members of Ala Alba.

Asuna was giving Guiche _The Glare,_ Setsuna was shadowing Konoka, Negi was discussing likely styles of combat with Kaede, Yue was persuading Nodoka to take a read at the thoughts of Guiche (who was busy grandstanding for his peers on the far side of the court), Louise was torn between worry on Asuna's behalf and hoping Guiche got the idiocy beaten out of him, while Chachamaru-

"Negi-sensei," Chachamaru said quietly, "Master wishes to join us."

"Ah," Negi said, "You've told her what this place is like, and that we don't know how to get back yet?"

"Yes, sensei," Chachamaru said, nodding calmly, "Master has been informed of our situation."

"Well, Master wouldn't ask to come if she wasn't sure," Negi said, before pulling a pactio card out of one of his pockets, and concentrating for a moment.

With a burst of _darkness_, a short blonde with _long_ hair, about four feet six inches tall, appeared in front of Negi. A lazy, superior smirk was spread across the young blonde's face, and she opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by a faint 'eep!' from Nodoka.

Yue, it turned out, had succeeded in convincing the shy librarian to take a look at Guiche's mind with her artifact diary, and what she had found _shocked_ the shy girl. Her small exclamation drew the attention of Asuna, Negi, Chachamaru, and the newly arrived blonde. Asuna took one look at the words, and _images_ spread across the pages of Nodoka's book, and promptly covered Negi's eyes with her hand before he could catch a glimpse. Chachamaru began to steam. Yue scowled. Nodoka began to have a small panic attack.

Eva raised a single eyebrow.

"Eva," Asuna said, "One of us, was going to duel with... _him_," She spat the pronoun like it was a curse, "I was going to do it myself, but now, he needs to be _humiliated_, and _nobody_ humiliates like you do."

"Oh-ho-ho!" Eva chortled, a predatory grin spreading across her face as she looked Asuna up and down, "Looks like _someone_ bit the lemon. Sounds like fun, it's been too long since I've shown bratty nobility their place."

"_Grind his face into the dirt!_" Asuna growled under her teeth, flipping Nodoka's artifact shut with one hand, which freed the other up to begin gripping spasmodically at nothing, as though it were trying to take hold of a blade.

"With _pleasure,_" Eva crooned, sauntering out into the middle of the court with an imperious gait.

"Oy, Boya!" She called to Guiche, "Get out here so I can show everyone here what a prissy little girl you are!"

Guiche, interrupted mid-boast, stared at his diminutive opponent in shock. She appeared to be somewhere around eleven years old, but she moved like some kind of... she moved like _Kirche__!_

"We're not having a staring contest, blondie," Eva said mockingly, "Get your cowardly ass over here and _fight me!"_

The last words were more snarled than spoken, and carried sufficient rancor to jerk Guiche out of his shock.

"You cannot be serious!" He said, drawing himself up in affront, "I cannot fight a child, even at the behest of Royalty!"

"Well," Eva said with a smirk, "That's easily enough handled."

She snapped her fingers, and without so much a flicker or a puff of smoke, took on the appearance of a woman who could be just on either side of twenty.

"No get in here and _fight_ me you _fop!_" Eva growled.

"Er," Guiche stuttered, then shrugged, and strode forward into the middle of the court, "I am Guiche Gramont, my runic name is 'The Bronze,' and I am an Earth mage; your opponent for this duel will be one of my Valkyries."

With that, he drew out a _rose wand_ (which drew some surprise from the Ala Alba members, Kaeda even opened her eyes fully when she caught sight of the girly implement), and dropped a single petal to the ground, which sprouted into a bronze golem, in the form of a shapely woman with a spear, about the size of a tall man.

"I," Eva said, her grin shifting from 'predatory' to 'bloodthirsty,' "Am Evangeline Athanasia Katherine McDowell, and I have many titles, the first of which I will introduce to you is 'The Doll Master,'" She flicked a hand out towards the Valkyrie, which had begun to advance on her, "And this looks like a _lovely_ doll."

And then the Valkyrie turned around, brandished its spear with a graceful twirl, and charged Guiche. For an instant, Guiche froze in shock, completely bewildered by what he had just seen. For most students at the Tristain Academy, that moment of frozen hesitation would have meant death; however, Guiche was not most students. His confidence in a duel was not wholly unwaranted; not only could he conjure golems, but his father had drilled him _extensively_ in their use, and hard-earned instinct caused him to reflexively conjure a second to defend himself from the first.

Eva seized control of that one, too.

This time, however, Guiche was over his shock, and responded in the only way that his limited combat repetoire really allowed, summoning a full spread of seven Valkyries, and sending them to take down the two that his opponent had seized, hoping that he had created more than she could steal.

Eva stole those seven, as well.

It was about then, that the _running_ started.

((()))

Deep within the Fire wing of the Tristain Academy, there was a certain laboratory, that few dared enter, for fear of the bizarre experiments conducted by its owner. Within were strange metal devices, glass tubes much like those of an alchemist, but filled with vile, tarry substances, odd pipes made out of brass and steel, and many other mystifying articles.

Within, Jean Colbert lay hunched over his work bench, snoring peacefully, blissfully unaware of the world around him.

((()))

"That's it?" Eva said, nose crinkling in disgust, "You didn't even last five minutes!"

Guiche lay against one of the courtyard walls, face bright red as he gasped desperately for air, his pathetically out of shape body having handled the three minute and some seconds run for his life about as well as an egg handles being stepped on by the moon. He tried to speak, but diminishing his rate of oxygen exchange even _slightly_ caused his vision to fuzz over, so he said nothing. He would have tried to move, but an array of Valkyrie spears were pinning his clothes to the wall, making such efforts rather pointless.

"Well then," Eva said, "We'll just have to teach you a lesson before sending you home to your mother to teach you how to be a _proper_ young lady."

With another flick of her fingers, Eva took control of _Guiche_, and he rather abruptly found himself doing a graceful Waltz with one of his Valkyries. Only the Valkyrie was taking the lead, putting Guiche in the _woman's_ role in the dance.

"Hm," Eva said consideringly, as she inspected his dance form, "You dance pretty well, for a little girl, when you've got proper _direction_. You're still not in quite the right _outfit_, however."

Eva snapped her fingers again, and Guiche's school uniform swiftly, but visibly, morphed into a rather elegant black dancing gown; if he wasn't already red-faced from his shortness of breath, he would _very_ quickly have become so.

"Much better!" Eva declared cheerfully, and then proceeded to spend the next five minutes directing Guiche and the Valkyrie through a number of dance steps around the courtyard, summoning a string quartet's instruments, as well as a piano, and setting the other Valkyries about to providing music.

She decided enough was enough, however, when some of the other girls began making noises about getting Negi to go and dance with them, and drew the performance to a close, walking Guiche, who was _still_ breathing hard, and the Valkyries up to stand in front of her.

"Right, young lady," Eva said, "I think you still haven't quite learned your lesson, so it's time to _really_ drive it home.

Then she conjured a chair for herself, sat down, bent Guiche over her knee, and spanked him firmly. And _thoroughly_, smacking him on the butt repeatedly for more than a minute, before shoving him off of her lap into a mud puddle (which no one recalled seeing before Guiche landed in it.)

"I think the point's been made, girly-man," Eva said, reaching over to physically take hold of one of the Valkyries, "Treat women with _respect_," She paused to, by sheer physical strength, crush the Valkyrie into a small ball of metal (making a horrific shrieking sound in the process), and drop it by his head, "Don't think too much of yourself, _idiot._"

She grabbed another Valkyrie, and gave it similar treatment.

"Real men," Eva growled, glaring down at the moad-soaked, bedressed, exhausted, and _terrified_ Gramont, "Know that sometimes you need to think with your fists, but _never_ with your nuts."

A single sharp gesture with one hand crushed the rest of the Valkyries into similar balls of brass, and she turned and stalked away, leaving him surrounded by the crushed ruins of his summonings. And his stunned peers amongst the students, ans half of the faculty, and a fair number of the serving staff.

Utterly humiliated.

((()))

AN: I really am quite fond of this story; not as much as with Summoning Kushina, but it's good for fun stuff and ROFLstompage.

Also, to say it again, I've been E-published, link should be up on my profile. Please go buy, read, and enjoy!


	7. Dungeon Crawler in Halkeginia

AN: Since another author bribed me to continue this with some of their own work, I decided to edit and post a less messy version. For those not familiar with Dungeon Crawler, this is an alternate continuation of a series, the prior installments of which can be found on my author page.

((()))

A crash of thunder, an explosion of smoke, but no visible flame. The smoke spread, dissipating as its particulate density within the air faded proportionately to its expansion, the gentle wind that bled through the courtyard beginning to carry it away. Not quickly enough to fully protect the courtyard's occupants though, as a chorus of young, and one old, set of lungs worked into small fits of coughing, the assorted mages' bodies trying to protect themselves from the impurities in the air.

Gradually the smoke cleared, and an array of teenagers, young men and women in the category society awkwardly treats as the transition between child and adult, became visible, supervised by a single middle-aged man. Set apart from the rest of the students, a slip of a girl with near-albino coloration, save the odd pink hue of her hair, stood in the epicenter of a circle, waving smoke away from her face, where it was still thick enough to somewhat obscure vision, as the epicenter of the thunder and smoke-burst was directly in front of the pinkette.

Once the smoke cleared enough for her to see what lay on the ground before her, she gasped.

"_Professor Colbert!_" She screamed, falling to her knees in front of the creature, hands reaching out to _do something_, but stopping short of touching it, because she had no idea _what_ to do.

Laying out on the stone summoning circle before her, was a mutilated cat, its fur smoldering, fluid seeping from one smashed eyesocket, and entrails hanging out of its slit abdomen.

"_Brimir's tooth_," The middle aged man breathed, stepping forward and seeing the condition of the creature before him, then sucked in a deep breath.

"HEALER TO THE SUMMONING COURT!" He roared in a deep voice of command that caused all of his students, save the smallest, to jump in surprise.

He then carefully knelt down beside the cat as well, and to his considerable surprise, its head twisted around to face him, and the creature snarled at him, its front legs trying to claw it around to face him properly, but he could tell by the way its hindquarters did not move at all, its spine had been broken, partially paralyzing it. With an abbreviated motion from his staff, Colbert quenched the parts of its fur that were still smoldering, then with another, wrapped it in a barrier of air, immobilizing it.

"Sometimes familiar summonings pull the familiar from harsh circumstances," Colbert explained in a gentle voice to the distraught young mage who had summoned the injured cat, "It is uncommon, Miss Valliere, though not unknown, for them to arrive injured, though I have never heard of so severe a case."

"W-will she survive?" The Valliere girl asked tremulously.

Colbert glanced at the creature's crushed abdomen and groin.

"I will not lie to you, Miss Valliere," He says, "I have seen a fair number of wounds in my day, this one could go either way. It depends on how quickly _he_ can be treated, and what level of care the academy Healer is willing or able to give a cat."

The pinkette looked up at him, nodding fearfully, her heart already going out to the creature, both for its obvious plight, and the fact that it would be _bad news_ if her familiar died before she could even finish forming the bond with it.

"H-how," She stopped, cleared her throat, and then continued in a more steady voice, "How may I help, Professor Colbert?"

"Complete the binding," Colbert replied, "Many familiars become physically more resilient as a result of their master's magic, it may help stabilize him."

The girl nodded, and raised her wand, a look of concentration rising in her face as she opened her mouth and incanted.

"My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière," She said, "Pentagon of the five elemental powers; bless this humble being, and make him my familiar."

Then she leaned down, and gently kissed the injured feline on the snout. The cat tensed slightly as angular runes seared themselves into its forehead, and it glared at her, the seeping, ruined eye-socket on its right side lending horrible contrast to the fierce look in its left eye. Louise felt a chill go down her spine as she met that single, hard gaze, but refused to look away. What kind of noble would she be, if she could not even meet the gaze of her familiar, especially wounded as it was?

Her own gaze hardened as she glared back at the creature, and they conducted a small, but intense staring contest, until the healer arrived, and nudged Louise aside.

"Oh, hell," The healer said, looking down at the cat, "This is a familiar?"

"Yes," Colbert said firmly.

"I'll do what I can," The healer said, and with a flick of his wand, raised the injured beast off the ground, then set out towards the infirmary.

Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière sat in the infirmary, staring at the improvised bed her familiar lay unconscious on. Its right eye socket had been cleaned up, and _out_, and the slack eyelid over the empty socket was vaguely disturbing. The cat's distended belly, particularly swollen where irritated was tissue was swollen, even after the Healer had re-inserted the creature's entrails before sealing it up, was only more disturbing. Mostly because looking at it so viscerally reminded Louise that she had seen what was _in there_ when it was _not_ in there, but should have been.

She was still surprised that she had not vomited at the sight. A part of her mind that Louise was not very comfortable with at the moment notified her that there was at least one upside to her familiar's horrific wounds; not a one of her classmates had dared speak a word from the time she completed her summoning, to the time she left with the Healer. She still wasn't sure how to react to that.

For the first time ever, she had successfully cast a spell, and if she was honest with herself, if she could only ever succeed once, Summon Familiar was her best option to succeed at. A pathetic failure of a mage she might be, but with a familiar successfully summoned and bound, there could be no doubt that a mage is what she was. Even if she was the absolute least amongst mages, with this, she would forever be at least one tiny step above a _complete_ failure.

It was small comfort, especially when she looked at her sleeping familiar, and saw how pathetic it looked, something that a deep part of Louise that she tried desperately to deny existed, insisted was only an appropriate reflection of how pathetic she was herself. In spite of that self-depreciating voice however, Louise felt a small warmth in her chest, and had to fight back tears as she reached out and touched her familiar.

This creature, this poor, injured, yet fierce creature, represented to her the only validation she had known since she first arrived at Tristain academy.

The next day, classes were canceled at the academy for second year students, so that they could spend time with their new familiars. For Louise Vallière, that meant sitting in the infirmary, staring at her recuperating cat. She wasn't exactly certain how to bond with an unconscious familiar, and after a minute or so went in search of the Healer that had treated her familiar.

"Excuse me," She asked him, "Is it safe to move my familiar?"

Looking up from the book he had been reading, the man studied her for a moment.

"The cat, right?"

Louise nodded in response.

"He's safe to move," The man said, "Just be careful, and no sudden movements, or pulling on his abdomen, rear legs, or tail. You're lucky your familiar is small, and a relatively simple creature, physically, I have been able to heal the damage to the spinal cord, but it's still going to take some time for it to fully recover. Even after that, it will be some time before it fully re-learns how to move everything below the base of its ribcage. If it had been a larger or more complex creature, say, a Manticore, it would have taken advanced reagents to heal."

Louise nodded.

"Thank you," she said quietly, and turned to leave, before pausing for a moment and continuing, "Is it safe for me to take him back to my quarters?"

The Healer nodded, not bothering to look back up from his book as he did so. Louise returned to where her familiar lay, then carefully picked up the wicker basket containing the cushion it rested on, and left the infirmary, heading back to her quarters amongst the students from more affluent and influential families. After a modest walk through the mostly deserted hallways, she arrived in her quarters, fumbling a bit to open the door without dropping the basket, then entered, pushing the door shut behind her.

After a moment's thought, she carried the basket to the window, then placed it on the window sill, so that the cat would be resting in the sun, something she recalled her elder sister's cats enjoying a great deal. It took her longer than she would have liked to drag her chair from her desk over to the window, but with her very petite build, and lack of magical aptitude, she simply did not have much strength to move it with. Soon enough though, she was seated in front of the low windowsill herself, and looking out over the courtyard, and the academy's outer wall, to the massive forest beyond.

A bittersweet smile crossed her face as she enjoyed the view that her family's proud status granted her; something she had initially desperately hoped to be able to earn when she arrived at the Tristain Academy a year ago, but had long since realized that was unlikely to ever happen. Sighing at the melancholy turn of her thoughts, she turned her attention back to her new familiar, and reached down to gently stroke its flank.

The sensation brought back happy memories of spending time with her elder sister, Cattleya, tending the girl's extensive menagerie of cute, interesting, and sometimes somewhat dangerous creatures. Her older sister was so gentle and patient with all of them, bearing many small scars that new additions had given her before they had come to recognize the sickly young woman as protector and provider, rather than predator or prey. Louise found herself desperately desiring her elder sister's gentle embrace just then, as tears again threatened to come to her eyes.

So often, it was like this when she was alone, the harsh need within her to always show strength, and nothing else in front of her peers falling away, leaving her with nothing but acute feelings of inadequacy. Shaking her head in an attempt to force her thoughts elsewhere, Louise looked down at her familiar, realizing her hand had come to rest over its heart, and she could feel the small organ's steady beating beneath her palm. It surprised her, how strong the sensation was.

On an impulse, she gently lifted the creature out of the basket, and pulled it into her lap, cradling it with both arms, and stroking its forehead, occasionally running her fingers over the small runes etched into its forehead. Her thoughts again drifted back to her elder sister, and life at home, memories both happy and painful. She didn't even notice when she drifted from daydreams, to dreams, falling asleep with her unconscious familiar held in her lap.

Louise woke with a start, not consciously aware of the sound that roused her, leaning around the side of her chair to look for the source of the sound she subconsciously recognized as the door opening. Standing just inside of the door to the hallway, a dark-haired maid holding a laundry basket stopped, startled to see Louise staring at her.

"Oh, pardon, milady," She said, blushing in embarrassment, "I thought all the second-year students were out on the grounds with their familiars, I did not mean to intrude."

"It is no problem," Louise said, waving off the maid's concern, "I do not mind."

The maid nodded, and turned her attention to the bed and changing out its linens, while Louise turned her attention to the warm bundle in her lap, which her still-waking mind quickly realized was her injured familiar, which was now staring up at her, with one good eye, and one empty eye socket. Louise was slightly unnerved by the gaze, but raised one a hand to stroke the creature's head reassuringly.

"Hey there," She said softly, "I'm glad to see you awake again."

Louise did not see it, but the maid working on her bed behind her started slightly. Louise's only experience with cats, and people around cats, had been her elder sister, and as a consequence speaking in a kind, encouraging way came naturally to her, if perhaps not as easily as it did to Cattleya. The maid behind her looked towards the back of the chair where Louise sat in confusion, then saw the basket and cushion on the window sill, drawing an accurate conclusion that the girl was holding her familiar in her lap, and speaking to it.

In Louise's lap, the cat simply continued to stare at her, not responding visibly to her stroking its scalp, which left Louise confused. She had never seen a cat behave in such a way before. But then, she realized, she has never seen a cat that is also a _familiar_ more than merely in passing before either. She stared back at the cat, trying to figure out _why_ it was staring at her, rather than either relaxing to enjoy her petting, or leaving her lap if it was irritated with her, like every other cat she had known.

"Oh," She said suddenly, "You probably _can't_ leave my lap. Um."

At this point, her body moved far enough towards full consciousness for her stomach to alert her to its dissatisfaction with how much time had elapsed since she last ate, and growled. A faint blush covered her cheeks, as she looked from the cat in her lap, to her stomach, and the cat did likewise. She could have sworn the thing was smirking at her. Rolling her eyes, she carefully gathered her familiar against her chest, then stood, looking outside first to check the position of the sun, then sighing.

"I don't suppose they're still serving lunch," She said, turning to face the maid.

"No, milady," The maid said, as she finished laying out fresh bedding, "We started working through the dormitories after finishing with the lunch clean-up. Would you like me to order you something from the kitchens when I head down to the laundry?"

"That would be excellent, …?" Louise trailed off meaningfully as she looked at the young maid.

"Siesta, Milady," The maid said, "Do you have any particular preference?"

"No," Louise said, waving off the question, "Whatever is already available, just make sure to bring some meat and milk for my familiar.

For the first time, Siesta's attention was drawn to the cat Louise was holding, which was squirming a little in her grip. She took in the empty eye-socket, the patchy fur and scarred ear, as well as how its hind quarters twitched spastically.

"Oh heavens!" She breathed, "I'd heard that one of the newly-summoned familiars was taken to the healers, milady, but I had no idea it was so serious! Is there any way I can help?"

"Just the meal please, Siesta," Louse said evenly, carefully keeping any extra warmth she felt towards the servant's obvious concern of her injured familiar out of her voice.

"At once milady!" The maid said, sweeping up her laundry basket, and rushing out the door, deftly pulling it closed behind her.

"Excitable, isn't she?" Louise murmured, before looking down at the wriggling cat in her arms, "Now what has gotten into you?"

Louise moved over to her newly-made bed, and placed the cat down on it, where it turned its attention to its rear half, and watched its legs, while the appendages twitched and jerked minutely.

"I'm sorry," Louise said gently, sitting next to the creature, and reaching out to stroke its head again, "You were severely injured before I summoned you; the Healer has repaired your spine, but you will have to learn how to walk all over again."

The cat tensed under her touch initially, but eventually just went completely limp, and closed its eyes instead. It was still silent and unmoving half an hour later when Siesta returned with the requested meal.

A week later, Louise entered her quarters silently, back stiff, shoulders straight, expression stony. She closed the door with absolute precision, then walked to her bed, and sat down on it. Her familiar, attempting to command his rear legs to move beneath his body under their own power, watched her move. Once seated, she took a deep breath, then lay down. After laying down, she rolled onto her side and curled into a ball, her stony expression dissolving into one of misery as she foughts back tears.

"_Damn_ that Zerbst," She said quietly, but forcefully, then turned her attention to regulating her breathing to prevent sobs.

Perhaps twenty seconds later, she was distracted from her internal struggle by a small, furry forehead head-butting her. She opened her eyes to look at the cat in confusion, which stared back with its one good eye, before licking her nose. Louise blinked, uncertain what to make of the action, and while she was frozen in surprise, the Cat pulled itself forward, then flopped its body on top of her head.

"Ack!" She exclaimed, bolting upright in an instinctive effort to get fur out of her face and nose, and tossing the cat off of her face and back onto the bed in doing so.

"What on earth are you doing, Familiar?" Louise demanded, staring commandingly down at the feline, which simply flicked its ears at her, then turned its attention back to trying to manage control of its rear legs.

It was nearly a quarter of an hour of one-sided interrogation attempts aimed at the unresponsive cat before Louise lost steam. By then thoughts of the Zerbst's words were far from her mind.

"Um, Lady Vallière?" A hesitant voice asked, and Louise turned to see one of the castle maids, Siesta, looking at her nervously.

"Yes, Siesta?" Louise said.

The girl waffled for a moment, shifting nervously, before extending her hand, which has something made from cloth on it.

"I am not sure if you desire it," She says, "Or your familiar would be amenable, but I made this for him."

Louise accepted the proffered item, and examined it. It was made of rough, but well-spun yarn, a hand-knitted piece that she knew represented a not-insignificant investiture of time and effort on the maid's part. It was an eye-patch, simple black, and scaled appropriately for a cat.

"Thank you, Siesta," Louise says, "I will see if my familiar appreciates it."

He did.

Three weeks had passed since the summoning ritual, and Louise's familiar had managed a halting mobility, though she found it somewhat painful to watch its lurching gait, especially when compared to the grace most cats moved with. It reminded her of her own failing attempts at using magic, except the cat would probably be able to gain a full range of motion, and as best as Louise could tell, she would never manage more than explosive spell failures.

Louise found herself beginning to respond to the taunts of her classmates over her failures more with stony silence, and less with loud counterattacks. She found she simply could not justify directly contradicting her classmate's words anymore, since she could not find legitimate grounds to claim they were not true. So instead she glared at her detractors, and discovered, to her surprise, that it was more effective in shutting them up than counterattacking had ever been. It didn't keep her classmates from mocking her, but it certainly stopped them for a while.

Now if she could just figure out why Kirche had stopped taunting her _altogether_. The Zerbst woman made no sense.

((()))

Louise sat cross-legged on her bed, idly stroking her familiar's stomach. It lay beside her on the bed; she had given up on trying to pull it into her lap when she wished to indulge in some cat-cuddling; if it was willing to move into her lap, it would put itself there. It was in some ways a fussy creature, she had found; it did not like being held against her chest, but would ride on her shoulders or let her cradle it like a baby. It also always seemed to be _doing_ something, generally systematically working the muscles in its lower legs.

It was very unusual behavior for a cat, but then, Louise had never known a cat that had to re-learn how to walk before. Still, she'd never seen a cat be so rigidly methodical about something, or object to gratuitous attention and petting. Every time she was sad though, _it_ came to _her_, and would cuddle, something she was profoundly grateful for; she felt desperately alone in the Academy place now, as her silence steadily isolated her more and more from her classmates, and she just wanted to know that _someone_ cared. Even if that someone was just a cat.

He was still _her_ cat, her _Familiar_, and evidence that even if she was almost utterly incompetent in its use, she _had_ magic, and was thus a mage. She found herself clinging to that fact more and more as time went on, and teachers bothered with her less and less.

_Thump._ A deep, resonating vibration rippled through Louise's room, jerking her from her thoughts, and her Familiar to his feet.

"What was that?" Louise breathed quietly, while her familiar shakily walked towards the edge of the bed nearest the window.

"Here," She said, scooping up the cat while she scooted off of the bed, and walked over to the window.

_Thump._ _Crack_. This time, the deep tremble through the stone around them was accompanied by the sound of stone shattering, and as they looked out the window, they saw an enormous figure of stone attack the castle wall for a third time. Louise's familiar squirmed in her grip, and she reflexively released it to stand on the windowsill.

_Thump. Crack. _This time, the wall crumbled, and the golem moved through, into the castle courtyard, aiming to attack the central keep. The crumbling stone of the wall proved unsteady, and almost cost the Golem its footing, but it abruptly regained its balance, and pressed on.

_Thump._ This time, the blow caused the castle to shake so hard, Louise compulsively gripped the window-sill for balance.

_Thump_. The Golem struck again, but the castle keep was heavily enchanted, and much more resistant to damage than the outer wall.

_Bump._ Louise felt the familiar sensation of her Familiar head-butting her, and looked down at it. It stared her pointedly in the eye, its good eye faintly luminescent in the starlight, its eyepatch utterly black against its dark fur, then looked down at the windowsill.

_Thump._ Resisting the urge to look back at the Golem, Louise followed the cat's gaze, to where it had scratched something into the windowsill with its claws.

_Explode it._ Louise's eyes widened as she realized first what her familiar intended, and then that it was intelligent enough to not only comprehend human speech, but _write_ it as well.

_Thump._ Furious, mad hope rippled through the very core of her being. No longer was she the zero, the near-useless mage who had barely even been able to summon a mundane, and heavily injured familiar; now she was Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, third daughter of Karin the Heavy Wind, with her own unique and magical familiar.

_Thump. _She might not be able to create anything but explosions with her magic, but sometimes, _this time_, an explosion was exactly what was needed.

_Thump._ Holding firmly to the window frame with her right hand, Louise retrieved her wand with her left, and began to focus her magical energies, channeling every bit of willpower she could muster into the spell that was forming in her mind.

_Thump._ It was not a standard spell; in fact, it was about as far from a standard spell as one could get, and still be casting magic.

_Thump._ It was a simple, concentrated thought, more an intention than anything else, a deep, fierce expression of a heartfelt desire to _make something happen._

_Thump._ Drawing back her wand, the tip of which was glowing, Louise's gaze happened across her familiar's face for a moment, where she saw a wild light in his eye that reflected the light in her own.

_Thump._ Her familiar suddenly snarled, a feral, triumphant expression and sound of anticipation, and Louise's head snapped around, a fierce smile of exultation on her face as she thrust her wand at the Golem.

_Thump._

"_**EXPLOSION!**_**" **Louise screamed, and the world turned white.

((()))

Kirche Augusta Frederica von Anhalt Zerbst was, quite naturally, curious as to what had roused her from a rather exciting dream during the night; unfortunately for her, her room did not offer a view of the outdoors. By the time she had roused herself from her bed and thrown a cloak on over her nightwear, the attack had halted.

For a moment, so had Kirche's awareness of the world around her. When her mind reconnected properly with her senses, she was sprawled out on the floor of the hallway, between her own and Louise's rooms, and her ears were ringing. Shaking her head, she rolled awkwardly to her feet, then lurched over to Louise's door. Ignoring the ringing in her ears, she opened the door.

Inside, she found Louise, rolling around on the ground in what appeared to be some sort of convulsive fit, but as she lurched across the room, and the ringing in her ears began to clear, she realized the girl was laughing. It was not a pleasant laughter either, a wild mad sound, a mixture between excessive mirth, and insanity. As Kirche's hearing returned more fully, Louise's laughter receded into demented giggles, and she began to mix words with her fitful mad mirth.

"Boom!" _Giggle,_ "I tell you-" _Giggle_, "To explode!" _Giggle_, "And BOOM!"

Reaching the girl, Kirche stumbled to her knees, and braced Louise's shoulders against the floor, holding the unresisting girl in place while she checked her over for injuries. Finding no blood, nor obvious gross physical harm, Kirche stood, and moved to the window. On the windowsill she found Louise's mutilated cat familiar, unconscious and wedged against the side of the frame. Gently pulling the small creature away from the side of the window, Kirche gently probed its head and back. There was the beginning of slight swelling on the creature's crown, but no sign of a fractured skull, so Kirche turned her attention to the courtyard outside the window.

Or the courtyard that _should_ have been outside the window. Fire, magma, shards of stone, what looked like the remnants of a massive stone pair of legs, burning shrubbery, and the ruins of a large portion of the castle wall met her eyes where the courtyard _should_ have been. Shock turned to horror as Kirche spotted a human shape, the hem of its cloak on fire, trying to crawl out of the crater that formed the centerpiece of the entire mess.

"Louise," Kirche whispered, looking back to where the oblivious pinkette was cackling madly, "What have you done?"

((()))

When Matilda de Saschen-Gotha awoke, her entire body tingled, except for her legs. In the fog of semi-consciousness, that seemed strange, but hardly something worth being alarmed over. Some time passed; she was not certain how much, but it had to be a fairly substantial portion of time, judging by how the shadows around her shifted, before her mind truly began to clear from the haze it awoke in. Shaking her head slightly to try and clear the rest of it, she sat up in bed.

Something seemed off as she moved, but Matilda concerned herself first with taking in her surroundings; she was in the academy infirmary. It was mid-afternoon, and this room was empty, save for herself and a short, very slender pink-haired student that Matilda could not quite remember the name of. The girl was sitting cross-legged on her own bed, absently petting a mangled cat in her lap, and directly facing Matilda, though her eyes were covered with a bandage.

"I'm sorry Miss Longueville," The girl said very seriously, "You were severely injured when I repelled the Golem's attack last week. I take full responsibility for this."

"…What happened?" Matilda asked, as she searched her memory for the girl's name.

"Professor Colbert told me that the Golem was most likely being directed by Foquet of the Crumbling Earth," The girl said, "As it was attempting to break into the Vault. I destroyed it with an explosive spell, and you were caught in the blast."

Matilda's eyes bulged, and she stared at the diminutive pinkette in shock. She remembered the girl now; she was Louise Valliere, called 'The Zero' mockingly by her classmates, for her inability to successfully cast _any_ magic. Matilda looked to the cat in the girl's lap again, this time noting the runes branded into its forehead, that marked it as a familiar. That alone, put the lie to her being as incapable as her classmates thought, but it did _not_ answer the question of how a slip of a second-year student could destroy one of her more powerful golems _with a single spell_.

_Charlotte Helene Orleans,_ Matilda reminded herself sharply, closing her eyes, and gritting her teeth. Matilda both hated and commiserated with the girl; she reminded Matilda of everything she was herself, but Matilda could not forgive the girl for having given up the way she had. More relevant to the immediate circumstances, however, was the fact that the girl was a triangle-level mage, and had been named Chevalier before she even reached the academy. Matilda firmly reminded herself _not_ to underestimate someone merely because of their age, especially when she knew so little about them.

"I'm sorry," The small girl said again quietly, before turning her attention more fully to the cat in her lap.

Matilda did likewise, examining the mutilated animal in more detail. It was staring at her with one eye, the other covered by a simple knit black eye-patch. The fur around its face was mostly intact, though one of its ears was missing a chunk; the rest of its body fur was a mess. Small patches were covered only with scraggly white fur, what had managed to grow through the scar tissue, and there were several long grooves where some sort of slashing weapon had apparently wounded it badly enough that no fur had grown back at all.

It was the eye, though, that drew her attention again and again; it was an eye that was far too intelligent for a simple cat, and spoke of a terrible insight that she did not want _any_ living creature here at the Tristain Academy to have into her. She turned away from the disturbing gaze, and looked back to the creature's master.

"What spell did you use?" Matilda asked.

"Explosion," The girl answered quietly.

Matilda blinked, more than a little startled, and considered the kind of explosion that would be necessary to destroy one of her golems. She would have thought a Shatter, or perhaps a Melt spell, from a fire or earth mage, but _Explosion_? And why were the girl's eyes bound?

"Lady Valliere," Matilda asked hesitantly, "What happened to your eyes?"

The girl smiled sadly, before responding.

"I was looking directly at the golem when I cast," She said bitter-sweetly, "The flare was so bright, I've at least partially blinded myself."

She turned to face Matilda then, her sad smile deepening.

"Don't worry," She said, "My father, Duke Valliere, is sending a party to bring me, and if you wish, you as well, to our family estates, to see the family healer. My family is wealthy, and if you will permit, miss Longueville, I will have you brought with, and ensure that you are healed as well."

Matilda turned her gaze away from the student-mage to herself, trying to figure out what Louise was referring to. All of her body parts seemed to be in place, with no obvious damage…

But her legs didn't move when she told them to. Stark terror shot through her like a bolt of lightning, and Matilda suddenly, desperately, wanted to scream.

((()))

Some hours later, Kirche headed for the infirmary, having come as soon as her classes finished, dragging Tabitha with her. One of the maids, Siesta, had told her shortly after lunch that Louise had finally woken up, but her cursed professor Earth (a woman, of course, no man could refuse her,) had not allowed her to leave until class had finished. Her rival had been in a healing trance for a week! Did the woman not understand how important a good rivalry was? Or how _hard_ it was to find a good rival?! They were in just as short a supply as good friends!

When she arrived at the infirmary, Tabitha in tow, she found that not only Louise, but also the headmaster's secretary were awake.

"Good afternoon, Valliere!" Kirche said brightly, "You don't know how to do anything by half measures, do you?"

"No," Louise said quietly but evenly, turning in her bed to blindly face the Zerbst, "I don't."

"What's with the blindfold?" Kirche asked, surprise slipping in to her voice.

"The Healer believes I may have blinded myself," Louise said calmly, stroking the familiar resting in her lap, "And did not wish to risk exposing my eyes to light until someone more experienced with battlefield trauma has had a look at them."

This revelation stopped Kirche cold, an experience she was both unaccustomed to, and uncomfortable with. She didn't really know how to respond to such a statement, especially when the normally highly excitable Valliere was dealing with it so calmly. Kirche desperately looked to Tabitha for some kind of input, and the bluenette responded in her usual, short form.

"Sorry," Tabitha said quietly, looking over her book for a moment, and then adding, "Comfort."

Kirche nodded decisively, then moved around Louise's bed, sliding onto it to sit behind the diminutive mage.

"What are you-" Louise began, turning to track the sound of Kirche's movement, but was cut off when the larger Germanian pulled the girl into an overpowering hug.

"Mmph!" Louise protested, but the Germanian simply tightened her hold on the smaller girl.

"Stupid Rival," Kirche said forcefully, her voice thick with emotion, "You can't go blinding yourself! There isn't a single other Tristainian worth taking as a rival in the entire Founder-cursed student body. Don't be so reckless!" She said, her voice rising nearly to a shout, "Good rivals are hard to find!"

Several long moments of silence passed, the students, save for Tabitha, oblivious to Longueville looking on in shock and confusion.

"Mmph?" Louise asked in confusion.

"Of course I'm worried about you!" Kirche said, "Where else am I going to find a suitable Valliere with which to continue our wonderful feud?"

"Mm-mphm?" Louise asked, confusion only rising.

"Of course not!" Kirche said, sounding positively scandalized.

"MrmphMPH!" Louise insisted, but Kirche shook her head.

It was the prick of a small cat's claw that finally drew her attention to the fact that she was accidentally suffocating the smaller girl, and she released the Valliere scion.

"Gah!" Louise gasped, taking great, heaving breaths that gradually restored her color, while her familiar stared up at Kirche reprovingly.

"What are you doing?" Louise demands harshly, once she had regained her breath, "You are my enemy. What do you hope to accomplish with this false display of compassion?"

Kirche blinked, brow furrowing in confusion at the girl's response. Taking hold of the girl's shoulders, she looked the girl up and down, searching for something that she could not seem to find.

"What has happened to you these last few weeks, Valliere?" Kirche demanded, "Your fire, it is dying!"

Louise's expression, directed at the dusky-skinned Germanian, hardened.

"Any 'fire' I may or may not have, dying or not, is hardly of concern to you, Zerbst." Louise said harshly, but to Kirche's disappointment and confusion, it was not the riposte or opener to her own side of an argument she had hoped for, but a rejection, a refusal to engage.

Lending weight to Kirche's observation, the blindfolded girl turned sharply away from the Germanian, and turned her attention firmly back to the cat in her lap. The cat, however, continued to stare at Kirche, its one-eyed gaze terrifyingly intense, questing, asking, _demanding_ something of her, even if it held no judgment in and of itself. Kirche would long deny it, but in that singular moment, the cat was suddenly the most terrifying thing she had ever seen.

She fled the infirmary.

((()))

"Hello, Eleanor," Louise said politely from the chair in her room, stroking her familiar as she heard her older sister enter.

She heard Eleanor stop, and could just picture the surprise on her sister's face. How would a blindfolded girl know just who had entered the room, after all? After a moment's hesitation, she continued across the room to stand before her youngest sister.

"Louise," She said bluntly, staring down at her sister in a long-practiced intimidation tactic, "The letter was not long on details; how have you managed to blind yourself?"

"But sister!" Louise exclaimed in mock surprise, "Did you not see the condition of the Sunward courtyard for yourself when you arrived?"

"Of course," Eleanor said harshly, impatiently, "What does that have to do with your eyes?"

"I cast an explosive spell," Louise responded, her calmness of tone a weapon against her sister's short temper, "And was looking at my target when I cast it. It was brighter than I expected."

Eleanor gave Louise a _Look_. Unsurprisingly, it had no effect, though the maid in the room standing beside Louise's packed luggage did feel a shiver go down her spine, without the look even being directed at her.

"I do not tolerate lies," Eleanor said harshly, "What really happened?"

"What cause have I to lie?" Louise responded calmly, to Eleanor's raising ire.

"You have not succeeded in casting a single spell in the entirety of your life, Louise," Eleanor said sharply, "The amount of destruction wrought on the courtyard would require square-level magic. It is impossible for you to have done such a thing, therefore, whatever your motivation, _you are lying_."

"You are wrong on both counts, Eleanor," Louise said, smugness beginning to edge into her voice, "I successfully cast both the Summon Familiar, and the Bind Familiar spells at the beginning of Spring, so even before the courtyard, you were wrong twice over. As to requiring square-level magic, while I am certainly most experienced at conjuring explosions, I did not fold any element upon itself to create this one, so-"

Louise was cut off by a sharp slap from her eldest sister.

"Silence," Eleanor said, and the room was indeed silent.

Louise lifted her hand from where it had been stroking her familiar, to her slowly-reddening cheek, delicately tracing the skin where her sister had stuck. Eleanor watched the girl with unforgiving eyes, while the cat in her lap looked back and forth between the two of them.

"Mother will hear of this," Eleanor said, her voice as granite, "Now it is time for us to depart."

"Yes," Louise said, turning her blind gaze up to her sister, anger entering her tone for the first time since the elder woman had entered the room, "Mother _will _hear of this."

Her voice dropped to a much more normal tone before she spoke again.

"Siesta?"

"Yes milady?" The maid said.

"If you would be so good to summon the porters, and send a quartet of them to collect Miss Longueville and her personal effects?"

"Yes milady," The maid answered, and quickly darted out of the room.

After the maid left, Louise relaxed back into her chair, and returned to stroking her cat calmly, paying her sister no mind. For several minutes, silence passed, and Eleanor realized, somewhat to her surprise, that she was feeling uncomfortable in the presence of her youngest sister.

"So," She said, determining to regain control of the situation, "How have your studies proceeded?"

"Until the assault on the castle," Louise said calmly, "I continued to hold first rank in my class regarding academics, and last regarding practicum. Since then, I have retained Siesta, the maid who just departed, as my handmaiden to read the relevant class material aloud to me, and take dictation for the purposes of my studies. She has been most efficient, and my professors have lodged no complaint over my performance since I lost the use of my eyes."

Eleanor was silent for a moment, flustered with how Louise mentioned her blindness so carelessly. She honestly could not think of anything else to say, so decided to remain silent until the maid returned with the porters, and instead studied her sister. There was something different about how Louise held herself now, and now that Eleanor was paying attention, it was both blatantly obvious, and _pervasive_. It was as though something that had been held at tension within the pinkette had settled, something that had been held captive had been released.

Whatever the change was, Eleanor could tell it would have a deep effect on the nature of their relationship.

"What happened to you?" Eleanor demanded, "You are not as you were before."

"As I stated previously," Louise said, "I have gained some control over my magic, however limited-"

She cut off as her familiar abruptly launched itself from her lap, and she heard a scuffling sound in front of her, then a thump, followed by her familiar hissing. Eleanor, the only human still capable of clear sight in the room, had just wound up on the floor, with a face-full of cat. Louise's familiar currently had its paws hooked behind her ears, was glaring at her with its one good eye, and hissing something fierce.

For the first time since she entered the room, Eleanor's attention was drawn to the familiar runes engraved across the cat's brow.

"_Myoztherin__?_" Eleanor breathed, "Louise, what kind of sick joke is this? You would brand some poor mutilated cat with the _Myoztherin_ runes? Have you no decency?"

"Have _you_ no _sense_?" A male voice interjected from the door, "Or would you not expect a Mage's familiar to protect her when you attack her right in front of it?"

The cat snarled, lending weight to the new arrival's words.

"Professor Colbert?" Louise asked, surprise evident in her tone, "What brings you to my door?"

"I came to see you off, Miss Valliere," The balding man said, stepping into the room, "And advise you of something before your departure, though it appears your eldest sister has already realized what I have to say."

"What would that be, Professor?" Louise asked respectfully.

"The runes your familiar bears," Colbert said, "Are the runes of the _Myoztherin_, the 'Mind of god,' most powerful of the four familiars of Founder Brimir."

Silence reigned in the room after that proclamation. Louise became utterly still, Eleanor stared at the professor, brow furrowed with concentration as she studied the older man. Louise's familiar, meanwhile, leapt off of Eleanor, back onto the lap of its summoner. Colbert simply studied the three beings in the room, though his gaze was somewhat harsh when it touched Eleanor.

"Why did you not mention this before?" Louise said eventually.

"At first because I was not certain," Colbert said, "Eventually, however, because the _Myoztherin_ is named the 'mind of god' for just cause, its power is predicated on it being a sentient being."

"And a common cat is no more than a beast," Louise said after a moment, "But you chose to tell me before I departed the Academy, as you did not think it appropriate to withhold such information from me once I was no longer readily at hand to inform."

Colbert nodded, then remembered Louise could not see him.

"Yes," He said, "Your time as my student is coming to an end, and as such it is no longer my place to determine what information to divulge to you, and when."

"I appreciate your candor, Professor Colbert," Louise said, giving the man a warm smile, an expression that startled Colbert, in no small part because he suddenly realized he never recalled seeing such a thing on her face before.

"You are familiar to me," Eleanor said, "But I cannot clearly remember you. Who are you?"

"I am Jean Colbert," Colbert said, "I used to be a compatriot of your mother, though I have not regularly associated with her in nearly twenty years, since I took up my teaching post at the Academy here."

Eleanor's attention was on Colbert, not Louise, but the professor noticed slight tightening of Louise's jaw at the mention of her mother, and he ruthlessly suppressed the urge to sigh. _Karin_, he thought, _You were ever the peerless warrior, but you still do not seem to understand how to be a parent._

A polite cough from behind him interrupted his train of thought, and he turned to see a maid, Siesta he recalled, behind him, and a quartet of porters.

"Well," He said, turning his attention back to the Valliere daughters in the room, "It seems the porters have arrived, so I will bid you both farewell. Please greet your mother for me."

And with that, he left. The Valliere sisters were silent as the porters began carrying Louise's luggage out, and Siesta quietly guided her lady out of the room.

((()))

The journey to the Valliere estate took five days by carriage, and between Longueville's paralyzed legs, and Louise's blindness, the group was not prepared for any swifter form of travel. It was an uneventful if tense journey for Louise; she could sense that Siesta was afraid of Eleanor, even if her own fear of her eldest sister had died the night she had blinded herself. Fortunately, Eleanor spent most of her time talking with Longueville, the pair finding common ground in the frustrations of dealing with the administrators of the academic establishment.

Louise spent most of the journey speaking quietly with Siesta of their families, and lives. To her belated surprise, such a conversation came easily to her, making Louise very aware of just how thick the barrier between the nobility and commoners usually was. Siesta seemed continually surprised that Louise cared to ask about her own family, something that Louise felt was very significant somehow, but spent little time dwelling upon, as the larger portion of her attention was drawn to how she could _hear_ the smile and warmth in Siesta's voice when she spoke of her sisters, brothers, mother and father.

Louise found herself jealous of that warmth, a painful realization, and one she knew she would not have been willing to make before her blindness. It was during one of the quiet times of the trip, when conversation had run out, and everyone was lost in their own thoughts and the sounds of the carriage and horses moving across the roads, that Louise realized that what she had feared most of all, being cast out of the nobility as a failure, incapable of magic, becoming a 'mere' commoner, may not have been so terrible as she had thought.

From what she gathered around the edges of what Siesta had to say, the most frightening thing to commoners, was the whims and tantrums of the nobility, and that was something Louise had to suffer already, from her eldest sister. There was something important about that, that the greatest fear of a noble would be becoming a commoner, and the greatest fear of a commoner being the nobles themselves, but Louise wasn't quite sure what it was.

What she did know, was that Siesta, who she had originally selected to hire as a handmaiden because the slightly-older girl got along well with her familiar and had taken care of the cat while Louise was unconscious, had begun to treat her differently. She suspected that the girl's willingness to take the position was also connected to the common ground they held over the cat, but something had changed in how Siesta respected her. The girl had always shown respect, as befitting a servant interacting with a noble, and she still did, but there was something different about it. Louise's inability to grasp what that difference was, on top of the other things she did not quite understand, frustrated her.

It was strange though, for all that these new, unknown things frustrated her, she still felt more at peace than she had since before she began her studies at the Tristain Academy. _That_ much, she at least understood. She had driven herself blind to do it, but she had finally accomplished something with her magic, and now that she had opened her mind the possibilities, she was not blind to just what she was capable of.

Louise would _never_ be blind to what she was capable of; what she had done to the Sunward courtyard may be the last thing she would ever see, and the sight was branded irrevocably into her memory. She had something of her own, her own ability, her own achievement, her own accomplishment, and no matter what anybody, commoner or noble said, she was not worthless. It would be interesting to see how this newfound discovery affected her relationship with her mother.

At the end of the five-day journey, she found out.

((()))

"Hello mother," Louise said courteously as Siesta's guiding hand on her elbow indicated with a tug for her to stop.

"Hello Louise," Her mother said, her sharp voice giving away as little as ever, "How was your journey?"

"Educational," Louise replied, "It is an interesting feeling of helplessness to be in a place you do not know, without the ability to see."

Her mother was silent in response to that, and a small part of Louise felt victory at that. Louise had joined her mother, and surpassed her eldest sister, in capability to unnerve conversational opponents. Or at least so she hoped; without being able to see her mother's face, she couldn't be sure what, exactly, her mother's response was, though silence was certainly uncharacteristic.

"Well," Her mother eventually said, "Let us retire to the sitting room, and you will fill me in on the details of what happened at the academy once we are situated," Louise heard her mother begin to move, and Siesta tugged gently at Louise's elbow, guiding her after her mother, who apparently noticed the action, as she asked, "Who is this that accompanies you?"

"This is Siesta," Louise said, "I have hired her to serve as my handmaiden since the incident. Her service has been more than satisfactory, and her literacy has helped me continue apace with my studies."

"You are literate?" Her mother asked as they moved, and Louise could tell the question was not directed at her.

"Yes milady," Siesta replied quietly, "Most families in Tarbes teach their children to read."

"Unusual, amongst commoners," The Lady Valliere said.

"Indeed, Milady," Siesta said, "It is a tradition I have not heard of amongst other towns or villages."

"Neither have I," Valliere said, and then paused for a moment, Louise heard a door open before her mother continued, "It is fortunate for my daughter, however, to find one such as you available to enter her service. I must request however, that you leave us at this time, as I need to speak with my daughter alone."

Louise felt Siesta hesitate at her side, and her heart was warmed slightly by the young maid's loyalty. It would not do, however, for her maid to come into conflict with her mother. The results would _not_ be pretty.

"Please find a member of the household staff to guide you to my sister, Cattleya," Louise said, "And inform her of my return. If you would also speak with her of my familiar, she is quite knowledgeable about cats, and will no doubt be interested in his condition."

"Yes milady," Siesta said, and squeezed Louise's arm slightly before leaving, surprising Louise with the gesture.

And then Louise was alone with her mother. Well, her mother and her familiar, but it was not as though the creature could speak, even if she remembered with sharp clarity its clawed message on her window-sill. A half-blind cat was somewhat faint comfort when stacked up against her mother, but Louise found her arm was raising subconsciously to stroke the cat on her shoulders regardless. Her mother's firm grip encompassed her other hand, and guided her directly to one of the finely crafted wooden seats in the sitting room, and Louise sat, hearing her mother seat herself a few feet away in front of her a moment later.

"So Louise," Her mother said, and even without her eyes, Louise could sense the full weight of the Lady Valliere's attention upon her, "What, exactly, led to the current condition of your eyes?"

"It is very simple, mother," Louise said, surprised by how even her voice remained under her mother's scrutiny, "A golem of considerable size was assaulting the Academy, and upon the urging of my familiar, I deliberately cast an explosive spell upon it, with as much force as I could muster. The blast destroyed the golem, did considerable damage to the Sunward courtyard, and injured both Miss Longueville and myself. According to Professor Colbert, the golem was most likely controlled by Foquet of the Crumbling Earth, in an attempt to break into the Academy vaults."

"I saw this Miss Longueville, as your sister escorted her to one of the guest quarters. She is paralyzed below the waist. What were your injuries?"

"According to the healers, I suffered from a concussion, burst ear-drums, and flash-blindness. They blindfolded me out of concern that my eyes do not seem to be healing properly; aside from this, I only suffered from some minor bruising, much like my familiar."

A long silence passed, and Louise transferred her familiar to her lap, and soothed herself by stroking it. Unusually, it did not simply relax bonelessly in her lap, but instead stared at her mother. At least, that was what Louise assumed, his head certainly seemed to be pointed in the direction which her mother's voice had been coming from.

"You say 'at your familiar's urging,'" Her mother finally said, "What exactly do you mean?"

"He clawed 'Explode It' into the window sill," Louise said.

"This would suggest he is intelligent, hardly a common thing for cats."

"Indeed," Louise responded simply.

Silence came again, but this time Louise could feel her Familiar's muscles tense, something she assumed to be a result of what had probably turned into an outright staring contest between her mother and the cat.

"His eye," Her mother eventually said, "Reflects far too much intelligence for a normal cat. Do you know what happened to the other?"

"He was heavily wounded when my summoning called him," Louise said, "His eye was spread over most of his face, his entrails were half out of his body, and he was covered in slashing wounds, as well as suffering from a broken spine. The healers were able to treat him, but he still has not recovered full mobility, and they did not have the appropriate reagents to re-grow the eye."

"I see," Her mother said after the silent moment Louise had learned to recognize as someone nodding before realizing she could not see the gesture.

"You mentioned a Professor Colbert," Her mother continued, "Would this be Jean Colbert?"

"Yes," Louise said, "He sent his regards, and delivered some strange news before we departed."

"Continue," Her mother said after a moment.

"He said that according to his studies, the runes that mark my familiar are those of the _Myoztherin_, the Mind of God."

Louise felt a deep sense of satisfaction when she heard her mother's sharp intake of breath; she could number on one hand the number of times she'd seen her mother's control crack, and she had never been a cause of such before herself. It was some time before her mother spoke again.

"Only the Founder ever bound such a familiar," She said flatly, "He was certain?"

"Yes," Louise said, "It surprised me just as greatly as it has you."

Another long silence passed, though this time, she eventually felt her cat relax back onto her, its staring contest with her mother apparently over.

"Was there any indication as to what injured it before you summoned it?" Duchess Valliere asked.

"The best guess from the healer was several knives," Louise said, "Though he was not very certain at all."

A dry scratching sound drew the attention of both Louise, and her mother, to the table where her familiar sat. Louise could not see it herself, but she strongly suspected that her familiar was writing something on the table with his claw. Louise winced; the table was a rather expensive hardwood, and her mother was unlikely to be pleased if it was substantially defaced.

"What is he saying?" She asked tentatively.

"'I broke a Dragon's artifact, and it got angry with me,'" Karin said flatly, "Something I find rather unlikely."

More scratching.

"No," Her mother admitted, "I would not have considered a cat with human intelligence likely either."

Silence passed for some time, as neither had anything in particular to say. In the past, the silence would have been filled with Louise's nervous words, but she was no longer nervous. Eventually, enough time passed that Karin determined she would not be able to sweat her daughter into speaking, and she was on the whole pleased with the change.

"Very well then," Karin said briskly, "It is time for me to test the veracity of your story. Come with me to the lake, and show me your explosion.

"Yes mother," Louise said, and Karin could detect the faintest hint of grim anticipation in her voice.

((()))

"Cast your spell," Karin said firmly, standing beside the lake near their manor.

"Not until I can feel your face pressed into my back," Louise said, calmly, serenely, and with the subtle absolute surety that Karin had long since learned to recognize as useless to fight against.

Finding such assuredness in her daughter was more than a little shocking. She could not, however, allow her parental authority to be challenged utterly with contest.

"Do not presume to command me." Karin asked sharply.

"I do not," Louise replied calmly, "I have simply stated the terms by which I am willing to fulfill _your_ command."

Karin paused a moment to think about that before responding.

"If you tell the truth, this is acceptable," Karin said, "If you do not, there will be punishment. Why though, do you not simply insist on a blindfold?"

"I will not take chances with my mother going blind," Louise said firmly.

"Acceptable," Karin said, nodding, then crouched down and gently pressed her face between her daughter's shoulders.

Louise was then treated to the unique sensation of her familiar crawling halfway down her face to cover her eyes with its own body. She supposed it was only fair, though.

"Please raise a shield around us, mother," Louise said, and began to focus her willpower.

Karin, considered by some to be _the_ premier battlemage in all of Halkeginia, had no need to see what she was shielding, and raised a stout shield around herself and her daughter with a single gesture. Her daughter continued to gather her willpower, focusing it, condensing it, directing it, until Karin could feel Louise's body trembling with the pent up energy.

"_EXPLOSION!"_ Louise screamed, and Karin felt as though the world was ending.

((()))

Siesta was having a positively heart-warming meeting with Louise's older sister, Cattleya, whose every move and expression radiated such a calm gentility that Siesta could not help but like her on first impression, despite her being nobility. That Siesta had found her in the menagerie the girl kept, tending gently to the wide assortment of animals, including some dangerous predators, all of which seemed completely at ease in her presence, only made the impression sink in more strongly.

The deafening explosion that sounded from across the manor-complex, however, put an end to Cattleya and Siesta getting to know each other, and to Siesta's distress, knocked Cattleya off of her feet, even though she herself was able to compensate easily. Knowing exactly _who_ had caused the explosion was not exactly reassuring either, but like a good servant, Siesta immediately set about assisting the noble in need before her.

((()))

She could see the explosion, _through her daughter's body, _through her _closed eyelids_. Karin was suddenly glad her daughter had been so insistent, and could all too well understand how her daughter had blinded herself. Karin realized that she was flat on her back, with her daughter sprawled out on top of her. Also, she thought her nose might be broken.

These thoughts took perhaps a single second to complete, before Karin's long-honed battlefield instincts kicked in, and she rolled her daughter off of her, leapt to her feet, wrapped a shield around them, and took stock of the surrounding territory. She was appalled at her slow response time, and determined she had grown overly confident that she had encountered more or less everything that the world had to throw at her, and would need to seek out new things to expose herself to and learn how to respond to the unknown again.

Her examination of the surrounding area, however, derailed this train of thought. Louise's targeting had gone somewhat awry, not altogether surprising considering she was blindfolded, and her spell had instead detonated along the western shore of the lake, south of the manor and its outbuildings. A small forest pressed up against that shore of the lake, a forest that was now noticeably smaller. The forest was a mixture of deciduous and coniferous trees, and the area immediately around the blast was comprised primarily of pines, which even from a quarter mile away, Karin could see had been crushed into splinters and kindling.

The blast wave had, of course, rapidly lost power as it spread, losing the power to fell fully mature trees within perhaps a dozen yards, but it had stripped many, _many_ more of their leaves or needles, most of which were lazily floating back to the ground as she watched. Small plumes of smoke also denoted spotfires that she knew would need attention quickly, before they grew out of control. None of the estate's buildings had been noticeably damaged, and no predators were fleeing from the forest in her direction, so Karin turned her attention to her daughter beside her.

Louise had pulled herself into a seated position with her legs crossed, and was calmly holding her familiar in her lap, petting it slowly. Karin was struck then, for the first time in several years, with just how _small_ her daughter was. Since she had entered adolescence, Louise's personality had become progressively more fiery and forceful, giving her a presence most were not even conscious aware of, a presence derived from how she simply hurled herself into any and every task or endeavor she engaged in.

Now though, for the first time in five years, Karin saw her daughter when Louise was neither angry, nor afraid, and it reminded her that her daughter really wasn't much more than five feet tall, even though she was fully grown. That Louise was seated, and blindfolded, did nothing to detract from the impression of smallness.

"You stopped Foquet with this spell?" Karin said, raising her voice as she spoke to compensate for healing dulled by the explosion.

Louise nodded, and long moments of silence passed while Karin thought, and Louise cuddled with her cat. Karin was unable to think of something appropriate to say, and eventually decided to go deal with the fires.

"Remain here until someone comes to escort you back in," Karin said, "While I go deal with the fires."

Louise just silently nodded, and Karin strode swiftly towards the forest.

((()))

"Are you certain you'll be alright, lady Cattleya?" Siesta said, fretting over the pink-haired girl who was now laid out carefully in a hay bale.

"Quite," Cattleya said, her voice weak, but her face smiling, "If that was the work of my sister, you _must_ go and check on her. Besides, my own maid-servant will be out to check on me quite soon herself, no doubt. If anyone questions you, you may tell them I commanded you to go."

"Thank you," Siesta said swiftly, then bowed and scurried out of the now-calmed menagerie in a rush.

((()))

Siesta found Louise sitting calmly with her familiar near the lakeshore, doing nothing in particular. Siesta approached swiftly, seeing little reason to dally or be subtle.

"Mistress Louise?" Siesta called hesitantly as she approached, and the pinkette turned her head.

"That sounds like Siesta," Louise said, "My hearing is somewhat impaired from the explosion though, so I am not sure. Please speak up."

"Mistress Louise," Siesta said, raising her voice slightly, but counting more on the lesser distance to her employer

"Yes, Siesta?" Louise asked, turning to blindly face her maidservant.

"What happened?" Siesta asked.

"My mother asked me to demonstrate the spell I used to stop Foquet," Louise said, grinning slightly, "She has gone to put out fires."

"Ah," Siesta said, a small smile working its way onto her face and into her voice, "You must have held back this time, milady."

"What makes you say that?" Louise asked, raising an eyebrow from beneath her blindfold.

"I don't see any magma," Siesta said with a smirk.

((()))

End chapter 1.

((()))

AN: Much better, eh?


	8. Dungeon Crawler in Halkegenia pt 2

AN: A NEW CHALLENGER HAS APPEARED.

((()))

Life was _peaceful_ on the Valliere estates, Louise found. Her mother and father wielded their authority with consistent and vigorous strictness, but _because_ they were consistent with their exertion of power over their vassals, they only wielded it _rarely_. As a child, Louise had always simply seen this as 'how things were,' especially given that during her visits to the Royal Palace, servants stepped lively around the prestigious Valliere family.

At the Academy, things had been different, and day-to-day life had been utterly dominated by the petty squabbles of young nobles. Once she was removed from the situation, Louise found that she did not miss it in the least, _especially_ given what she had seen in her developing relationship with her mother.

Well, metaphorically 'seen' anyways, the family's physician hadn't returned from a trip to one of the Northern towns within the Valliere estates until that morning, and Louise was hoping he'd allow her to have the blindfold off.

"Finished, milady," Siesta said from behind the youngest Valliere, stepping away from where she'd been lacing up Louise's 'simple' house dress, "Hopefully, you will be able to see whether it is to your satisfaction in a few hours."

"Hopefully," Louise said with a faint smile, "Has my familiar finished hiding himself in the corner yet?"

"He's still over there," Siesta said, a smile in her voice, "Shall I collect him for you?"

"Please do," Louise said, "I'd like to ask the healer if it is possible to replace his eye."

"Of course milady," Siesta said, and after a few moments spent bustling around slightly more noisily than really necessary (something Louise knew was for her benefit), the maid from Tarbes gently placed the cycloptic cat in the pinkette's arms.

"Off we go then," Louise said, shifting her familiar around into a carry that left one arm free for Siesta to lead her with, "Do you know where the infirmary is?"

"One of the household staff told me it was beside the training hall, milady," Siesta said as she led Louise out the door of her room, "Which I passed through on the way to your sister's menagerie yesterday."

"Correct," Louise said with a nod, resisting the urge to twitch when her familiar wrapped his tail around her forearm and briefly brushed the tip against her cheek.

Few other words passed between them on the way to the infirmary, tentative hope both weighing them down and buoying them up. Louise had gone weeks without being able to see, and while she felt that the loss of her sight had helped her gain perspective on much in life, she was more than ready to have it back. In spite of that, she felt little in the way of nervousness, something that only vaguely surprised her anymore.

Louise had lived in fear and anxiety for far too long; she didn't intend to do so any longer.

((()))

"In time, I expect a full recovery," Healer Brassa said, his outlander accent lending a lilt to his words, "It will require regular and _careful_ treatment, as the eyes are very delicate organs, but we should see a full recovery within four weeks."

"Thank you," Louise said quietly, staring out at the (blurry) world around her with a small smile, "Again, you've helped save me from the consequences of my own foolishness."

"That's what your father pays me for," Brassa said, an easy smile crinkling the age lines on his tanned face, "And you are _still_ the easiest member of your family for me to work with."

Louise shared an old smile with the Germanian physician; he originated from one of the tribes to the far Southeast, barely within Germania's borders, and had been hired more than a decade ago by her parents for his specialization with regenerative magic. Very little in the way of healing worked on Cattleya's illness, and the long-term systemic treatments that Brassa spcialized in accounted for most of them.

"Come, Siesta," Louise said, smiling at the blurry form of her handmaiden, "Let us go see healer Brassa's most dificult patient."

((()))

Louise's middle sister was, unsurprisingly, found in her menagerie; both sisters were thrilled to see each other, even if 'see' was a fairly loose term in Louise's case.

"It has been too long," Cattleya sighed happily as she swept her younger sister into a gentle embrace, "Especially considering how rarely you've written of late."

"I'm sorry," Louise said, small tears making her vision blur even further than it already had, "Until I was injured, I was very dispirited, and found little motivation to write you about how depressing my life had become."

"Some word is better than no word, sister dearest," Cattleya said chidingly, before pulling back to look her sister up and down, examining her for any sign of injury, "It looks like you've healed well enough from your little accident. Four weeks until your sight has fully recovered?"

"That is what healer Brassa said," Louise said with a nod, canting her head to the side as she studied her elder sister's blurry face, "You know, with my eyes like this, your nose looks rather like an apricot."

Cattleya blinked.

Siesta blinked.

Cattleya's handmaid blinked.

"That was a startlingly non-sequitor observation," Cattleya said after a moment's pause, "Whatever possessed you to say such at hing?"

"Your nose _does_ look like an apricot," Louise said, a slightly mischevious smirk beginning to form on her face, "Whyever else would I say such a thing?"

"That is a reason to _think_ such a thing," Cattleya said, her lips twitching as amusement warred with some small exasperation, "But hardly a reason to _say_ it."

"For what reason would I _not_ say it?" Louise inquired with elaborate earnestness, "In this moment, I surely cannot think of a reason."

Behind the younger Valliere, Siesta snorted slightly as she desperately fought to contain her giggles; Cattleya's handmaid had no such compunctions.

"It's good to see you smile again," Cattleya said, a soft smile washing across her own face as she gazed down at her younger sister, surprised to realize how relaxed the youngest Valliere was, "Now, can you introduce me to this familiar of yours?"

"Siesta?" Louise called, looking over her shoulder towards her maid.

"Yes milady," Siesta replied, gently picking the named familiar up from where he'd been seated on one of the hay-bales in Cattleya's menageries, and carrying him over to the Valliere sisters.

"I'd like to say he's a gorgeous creature," Cattleya said, wincing slightly as she looked the mutilated feline over, "But I think it would be more accurate to say he _was_ a beautiful creature. Here," Cattleya slowly seated herself on a cushioned chair that appeared rather out of place within the menagerie, the patted a simple wooden workbench beside the chair, "Set him down and let me have a look at him. Is there any particular kind of handling he tends to object to?"

"First of all," Louise said as Siesta set the cat on the indicated table, a hint of nervous caution entering her voice, "He isn't a normal cat. He's used his claws to etch out words at least twice, and has displayed intelligence far beyond a normal cat on a few other occasions as well?"

"What sort of occasions?" Cattleya asked, a slight intensity beginning to enter her gaze and voice.

"I didn't realize it until after the fact," Louise said, seating herself on a stool in front of her sister, "But any time I had a particularly unpleasant day in class, he would deliberately distract me from my troubles, usually by butting me with his head until I paid him attention. As to certain kinds of handling, he will not let you hold him against your chest, and he is picky about how he rests in a person's lap, if he will allow it at all. Of preference, he will drape himself across my shoulders when I am carrying him, otherwise I can carry him much like I would a baby."

"Is he picky about others beside yourself handling him?" Cattleya asked as she cautiously extended a hand out towards the cat, which was now staring at her.

"You know," Louise said, glancing back at her handmaiden, "I can't even think of anyone other than Siesta that has _tried_ to handle him while he was awake, and he's had no objection to her."

"Nor," Cattleya said with a nod as she laid a single finger on the tip of the cat's nose, "Does he seem to object to me. Do you think he will mind if I look beneath the eyepatch?"

"I don't know," Louise said simply, glancing back at Siesta, who shrugged as well.

"Well, only one way to find out then," Cattleya said, gently taking hold of the knitted eyepatch, and pulling it up to reveal the cat's slack eyelid and empty eye-socket.

None of the others said anything for several minutes as Cattleya inspected the eye-socket, the rest of the cat's head, and the healed gashes and scars along his body, before coming back to study the head again.

"Oh dear," Cattleya said quietly, "Maria, could you go fetch the veterinarian? I think there's a fairly serious problem here."

"A problem?" Louise asked, a hint of worry entering her tone.

"Nothing life-threatening," Cattleya said quickly as she leaned down to examine the cat's eye more closely, "And I'm not surprised the healer at the school missed it, between the missing eye and a lack of familiarity with more veterinary matters, but I think he did your familiar something of a disservice in how he healed him."

"How so?" Louise asked.

"I think he healed your-" Cattleya sighed and looked up, "Really Louise, would it wound you somehow to tell me his name? Anyway, I think his skull was healed slightly wrong, putting pressure on his brain, which likely has resulted in a fever or delirium-like effect."

"Ah," Louise said awkwardly, wondering if what she had thought of as merely odd behavior patterns were a sign of something much more significant, "I never did give him a name. I usually just call him 'familiar.'"

"Of course," Cattleya said with a sigh, rolling her eyes, "You never were terribly creative, were you?"

Louise blushed, and said nothing more until the veterinarian arrived.

((()))

_**Clarity** returns, and my mind is more fully my own._

_It is not a full clarity._

_It is not a pleasant clarity._

_But it is a clarity._

_For the time being, it will have to do._

((()))

"You know," Siesta said softly as she stared at the cat sitting on one of the tables in Louise's chambers, "That's almost scary."

'_I'm sorry,_' the cat scraped out on the small box of sand that lay in front of it, '_It is not my intention to unnerve you._'

"You've changed," Louise said, her voice rising a little as she stared at her familiar, "I wish I'd thought to have you see a veterinarian while we were still at the Academy."

'_It would have been preferable,_' The cat replied, '_But your care of me in my debilitated state has been more than satisfactory regardless. As you no doubt gathered, you called me directly from a battlefield, and I am grateful both for that, and for being granted the time to recover._'

Silence passed for a few seconds as the girls read what the cycloptic cat had scrawled out in the box of sand.

"You're quite articulate for a cat," Louise eventually said, "Are you a part of some magical bread not native to Halkeginia? The result of some researcher's experiment with enhancement magic?"

'_I'm a shapeshifter, actually_,' he wrote, '_I've been cursed, trapped in this form, for some time now.'_

Surprise worked its way across Louise's face as the oddities her cat had displayed abruptly began to fit together, and a smile worked its way across her face after the surprise.

"A changeling?" She said, a smile in her voice, "I don't suppose you have any other magical abilities?"

The cat raised a paw, extended its claws, and then with a twitch of his tail, they were wreathed in flame.

"Oh my," Siesta said somewhat faintly, "I did not expect that."

((()))

_Living amongst the Vallieres was _strange._ Like most avid readers of science and fantasy fiction, I had _some_ idea of what feudal society ran like, but that didn't really prepare me for experiencing first-hand the magical Duchy of Valliere._

_First of all, much as had been suggested by the original source material I had experienced, as well as most fanfics that covered it, the Vallieres were legitimately good stewards of the land in their care, and the peasantry under their authority. It was a deeply engrained element of their familial culture to regard their position as nobles as a _duty_ first, a responsibility before anything else._

_Not to say that they did not enjoy the wealth and comforts of their station. If however, one of their subjects were to be punished, for example, Eleanor ordered a cake from the kitchens, and what she received was shoddy workmanship, the responsible cook would be punished not because Eleanor was throwing a tantrum over having her whims denied, but because he failed to adequately fulfill his assigned duties. And the punishment would be in accordance with the offence committed; he would likely be docked half a days wages, rather than beaten or lashed as some petty nobles would._

_Some punishments might be considered excessive by people in modern day; the minimum punishment for _any_ theft was ten lashes, but I understood the reasoning behind it. The punishment was not for what was taken, the punishment was for daring to steal in the first place, a breach of trust regardless of what was taken._

_The Valliere family treated their peasantry with at least a close approximation of justice, and the non-oppressed peasantry was unsurprisingly far more productive than they would have been under brutal or uncaring taskmasters. The fact that the Valliere family had a storied history related to repelling Germanian adventurism over the border (which their estates spanned almost the entirety of), and a lot of those stories have earned the Vallieres respect from the peasantry, for protecting them._

_They also have earned them a fair bit of humor over the rather scandalous affair that started their feud with the Zerbst's, but the household serving staff, at least, are smart enough not to talk about such things around the Vallieres themselves. They didn't have any trouble mentioning around 'Lady Louise's cat' though, particularly given that we'd kept the fact that I'm intelligent from getting around._

_The Duke and Duchess understand the value of an unexpected bodyguard for their daughter, unsurprisingly, especially given Colbert's little revelation about me being the Gandalfr, in spite of my lack of hands. I find myself _respecting_ Duchess Karin, but much as when I only knew her as a fictional character, I still do not _like_ her. She's _very_ authoritarian in her attitude, 'you will do as you are told because you were told,' but unlike almost every human that holds such an attitude, she actually holds herself to a higher standard than those under her authority, and her protection._

_The Duke... He is a very impressive man. He'd have to be, for Karin to not only marry him, but give him three children; women like that don't tolerate weak men without utterly ruling over them, and she does _not_ rule over him. I can most clearly see the cultural imprint of the Vallieres in him, and it only took three days of observing him around the Valliere estate to recognize two potent elements of his personality, in spite of his strong emotional control._

_First, he dearly loves his wife._

_Second, it breaks his heart that she never gave him a son._

_To most people from the western world in the twentieth century, there's no real comprehension of just how different the culture was for nobility, their heritage, their progeny, the reputation and future of their house aren't quite _everything_, but they're _damn_ close to it. And the Duke's line is in danger of going extinct. Oh, there are ways around losing the title and the name, most involving convincing a young nobleman of lower rank to take the name when he marries one of the Valliere daughters, and then pass on the name _and_ bloodline through that union._

_But even for a family as powerful as the Vallieres, there is no guarantee that such measures will be successful, particularly in passing along the honor, integrity, and sense of duty that the current duke and duchess personify._

_Two days after I realize the Duke's heartbreak, I realize how much he loves his daughters._

_Eleanor just broke off an engagement because she found the man to be disagreeable._

_Marriage is not even suggested to Cattleya, as her illness would likely kill her during labor if she were ever to become pregnant._

_And Louise, in spite of her systematic failure with magic, has been allowed to attend the Tristain Academy, rather than being quietly and quickly married off to exactly the sort of nobleman that the Vallieres need, Wardes. It's not just that she's been allowed to continue in her studies, rather than be married, it's that she had been sent to the Tristain Academy _at all._ She _could_ have been taught at home by private tutors; she's a third daughter, even for a family so influential and wealthy as the Vallieres, it wouldn't be at all unusual for a third daughter to be tutored at home._

_Instead, they allowed her to attend, and essentially announce her 'shameful' disability with magic to not just the entirety of Tristain, but the entirety of the _continent._ All because of love, because of desire to see his daughter succeed, flourish, find happiness, instead of just treating her like a valuable piece in a political game._

_I find that my own deeply-entrenched anger and frustration with authoritarians is being eroded in some places. It's hard to resent these people, because for all that the system they believe in isn't a particularly good one, _they_ at least have the integrity to make it work properly. I just wish they could see how rarely that is the case._

_Watching the way Siesta has slowly changed in this place tells a story in and of itself, and I think Louise has started to notice. Siesta _has_ dealt with the pettiness far more common to regular nobility, and in time, may have eventually confided in Louise about exactly what that had meant to her, if not for an interruption to the sedate days at the Valliere Estates._

_Princess Henrietta came by for a visit, and she didn't come alone._

((()))

Siesta was fighting to hide a grin, even if Louise's vision wasn't clear enough to make it out from across the room quite yet. Louise herself was fretting directly in front of the large mirror her room hosted, trying to ensure that her appearance was 'perfect,' while the cat sat on the bed, occasionally flicking his tail in amusement.

"Milady," Siesta eventually said, _most_ of the amusement stripped from her voice, "While I understand how important it is to look one's best for the Princess, I think you reached the finest you can outside of a full court dress half an hour ago."

Louise sighed, and the nervous energy that had suffused her body drained away, leaving the pinkette looking somewhat drained.

"I suppose you're right, Siesta," Louise said, a hint of melancholy entering her voice, "It's just that seeing the Princess again reminds me of _before._"

"Before your eyes were injured?" Siesta asked tentatively.

"Before my inability to properly use magic was discovered," Louise said, the hint of melancholy growing into full-on sadness, "Princess Henrietta and I used to be friends, before her father ended my role as royal playmate once my incompetence was discovered."

Siesta's eyes widened, her mouth fell open, and shock resonated through her entire being. Louise glanced back at the maid, just able to make out that her mouth had fallen open with her mostly-recovered eyes, and smiled wryly.

"No," Louise said with a small grin, "I haven't mentioned I was the royal playmate before. Yes, it was for a reason. No, I was not willing to rely upon my connection to her highness to establish myself. The Princess doesn't need someone dragging her down by association, she has enough trouble coming her way as it is."

Siesta didn't know what to say; she already knew that the Vallieres were one of just three families in Tristain that held a Ducal title, but she hadn't realized that their influence extended _that_ far.

Louise breathed deeply, then exhaled, and the calm that she had exhibited since Foquet's attack on the Academy returned.

"Come," She said, turning and starting towards the door, "Let us go meet the Princess then."

((()))

_Henrietta was pretty. Beautiful even, though I wouldn't use 'gorgeous.' I'm not sure if that's a fair critique, or the perspective of someone who has been overexposed to photo-shopped and digitally edited actresses as well as over-idealized artwork of the 21__st__ century._

_Her dress was modest though, a difference I _strongly _appreciated in comparison to most modern 'public face' women. I found it to be a little bit gaudy, but then, most noble's wear from earth's equivalent period of history was just as much about flaunting wealth as actually being aesthetically pleasing (if not more so), so that doesn't really surprise me._

_Seeing Louise react to her is painful in a way; I've always been good at reading people, but the stat-grind backing my perception up has pushed me to read people _much_ faster. For me, seeing Henrietta is like seeing a cute girl, and an interesting curiosity as to how she relates to power and authority in this day and age. To Louise, seeing Henrietta is in _many_ ways seeing the avatar of her lost childhood, mixed with the subject of effectively-fanatical loyalty._

_She's good at hiding the clashing emotions, and the calm she's had since Foquet's attack is still playing a part, here gained security in self helping ground her, but I'm better at reading than she is at hiding. Hopefully, Henrietta will spend some private time with Louise, much as she did in ZnT canon. I hope she isn't after the same thing as she was then though, I'm at too small a fraction of my strength to deal with this setting's top-tier combatants yet._

_Then the leader of the Princess' guard steps into view. Wardes._

_A slow anger burned in my gut (even if cats have small guts), as I looked upon what for this world and generation, was the very face of betrayal. In my life before leaving my original reality, I had more intimate and semi-intimate relationships __**end**__ in betrayal than I had relationships _left. _Betrayal cuts deep, and just the associations Wardes face drew, even if I did not _know_ yet that he was to be a traitor, aggravated my own aching scars._

_I would be keeping a _very_ close eye on the Viscount._

((()))

AN: This is two days late, and half the length I intended. Yeah, that's a problem. An online game I'm running is eating not just my time, but my _brain-space_, and trying to go back and forth between the two has just massively degraded my ability to be productive with either/both. I'll be fixing that, hopefully, starting tomorrow.

By my own figuring/author's creed, I figure I still owe Krahae at least another chapter this long, since it's at best half the length of what she put out.


	9. Dungeon Crawler in Halkegenia pt 3

AN: Much better. With this, I consider my debt with Krahae to be _fulfilled_.

((()))

"It's good to see you again, Louise," Henrietta said with a faint, tired smile, "It really has been far too long."

"Your high-" Louise began, but Henrietta cut her off with a wagging finger, and a smile twitched at the edges of Louise's lips before she started again, "It has, Henrietta," She agreed, "I wish things had been different, these past seven years."

"So do I," Henrietta said sadly, before closing her eyes and seeming to visibly wilt in the plush chair she occupied in Louise's room, "From all I have heard, from the time my father forbade us from seeing each other, in effect, both of our childhoods ended."

"What happened?" Louise asked, concern in her eyes and voice as she studied her soon-to-be monarch and childhood friend, who just a moment before had seemed entirely at ease, "You clearly are not just tired from the journey here."

"You have become more perceptive, Louise," Henrietta said with a faint smirk, "And here, I had been told you were blinded in Foquet's attack."

"Temporarily," Louise said with a nod, "Things are still just a little blurry if they're too far away, but my family's healer expects me to make a full recovery."

"I'm glad to hear it," Henrietta said, "I was hoping you could accompany me on an upcoming diplomatic journey I will be undertaking; if you had still been blind, things would have been rather awkward."

"A diplomatic mission?" Louise said, a spark of excitement entering her eyes and voice, "Where are you going?"

"Germania," Henrietta said with a wince.

"_What?_" Disbelief killed Louise's spark of excitement.

Henrietta looked away, shame and pain crossing her face.

"You have heard of the Reconquista, within Albion?" Henrietta asked tentatively.

Louise nodded.

"Three weeks ago, they killed Prince Wales, some sort of inhumanly powerful mage cutting him down," Henrietta said, her voice devoid of all emotion, "Albion will fall soon, the Royalists have little remaining under their control save Newcastle, and we have very good reason to believe that the Reconquista is being funded and supplied by Joseph of Gallia. Given the rhetoric of the Reconquista's leadership, it is a functional certainty that once they control Albion, they will move on Tristain."

Painful silence took up residence in Louise's room for long moments after the Princess stopped speaking.

"Your beloved is dead less than a month since," Louise eventually said, clearly struggling to maintain her composure, "And the Cardinal is sending you to arrange a marriage alliance with the Emperor of Germania?"

Henrietta nodded, still not looking at Louise; Louise turned and looked away herself, torn between empathy for her friend's pain, outrage at the Cardinal's ill-timed machinations, duty to see Tristain preserved, and outrage at the idea of allying (especially so closely) with _Germanians_.

It was a long time before anybody spoke again, and Henrietta began to fidget nervously after the first few minutes of silence, as she waited for her only friend to respond to her revelation. Siesta, sitting silently on the sidelines, _desperately_ wished she was somewhere else, but every one of her hard-won instincts for dealing with nobility was screaming at her to simply remain unnoticed, so she sat quietly and waited.

The cat had no such compunctions, and growing fed up with the increasingly tense silence, padded quietly across the room, and leapt into Louise's lap. Not content to simply lay or sit there, he rose up and planted his forepaws on Louise's shoulders, and stared meaningfully into the (somewhat) startled pinkette's eyes for a long moment, before leaping back onto the floor. He then proceeded to cross the short distance between Louise' and Henrietta's chairs, before leaping into the Princess' lap, seating himself across her knees, and turning to stare pointedly at Louise again.

As Henrietta jumped slightly, and stared down at the cat that had decided to take up residence in her lap, Louise sighed, and finally spoke up again.

"Meet my familiar," Louise said wryly, "You'll probably see quite a bit of him in the coming weeks, given we'll be traveling through Germania with you."

"What's his name?" Henrietta asked, smiling with relief, and the beginning of tears in her eyes as she tentatively reached down to scratch behind the cat's ears.

Louise said nothing, and began to blush.

"Louise!" Henrietta scolded, "You've had him for _months_, and you still just call him 'Familiar,' don't you?"

Louise grumbled and looked away, her blush intensifying.

((()))

_That went better than it could have, but I was going to need to take a nap, and then talk with Louise and Siesta. I didn't want my sapience getting out while Wardes was around, and unlike Karin, they have little idea of operational security or its kindred._

_In the meantime, I need to get some rest. It's taxing, maintaining clear, coherent lines of thought, with all of the compulsion magic messing with my mind._

((()))

Matilda was... _confused_. She had long since become disillusioned with the 'nobility of the nobility,' and her time moving amongst the common folk had only reinforced her changed view of the world.

The Vallieres seemed like a slap in the face to everything that she'd come to believe since her family had been destroyed. When she'd learned that she was being brought to the estate of the wealthiest family in Tristain (after the Royal family, of course), she had expected to see that which typified the wealthier Barons and Counts of Albion; harsher taxation, and greater oppression of the common folk to force more wealth out of them. Instead, she had found people who paid only modest taxes, and aside from the household staff, direct family retainers, and armsmen, had little to no interaction with the Valliere family at all. They even allowed their sickly middle daughter, too frail to cast with any real power or speed, to travel into town (on a covered palanquin) with no armed escort!

And then their healer had cured her of paralysis, and _no_ payment had demanded. Matilda _knew_ that regeneration of that level required either the services of a square-class Water Mage of consummate healing skill or a Rhyme Dragon Scale as a reagent to empower the spell, both of which cost more than most peasants would earn in their life-time.

And according to the Duchess Valliere (who for some reason _terrified_ the part of her that was Foquet), it was something that the family had to see to personally as a simple matter of integrity and honor. Matilda didn't know what to make of the Vallieres; on the one hand they had foiled her attempt at stealing the Staff of Destruction and crippled her, but on the other hand...

...Well, their eldest daughter was still a bitch. At least _that_ much was familiar to Matilda.

((()))

"You are fortunate that the Princess' visit has come at this time," Karin said, eyeing her eldest daughter flatly over a cup of tea.

"Yes mother," Eleanor said, _almost_ managing to present a sufficiently calm facade to keep Karin from seeing how nervous she was.

"If I find that you have taken it upon yourself to discipline her without the permission of your father or myself again," Karin said after taking another sip of tea, "It will not matter if I find you in the middle of the Royal Audience chamber, your punishment will be both prompt and decisive."

"Yes mother," Eleanor said, carefully setting aside her own teacup before her hands could begin to shake.

"To your room," Karin said calmly, "I expect you to compose a formal letter of apology to your sister, to be delivered before she and the Princess depart the estates."

"Yes mother."

((()))

_Once Louise and Henrietta were done chatting for the night, and both had retired to bed, I decided to go pay Count Wardes a visit, and see if I could find any reason to think he was substantially different from 'canon.'_

_Tracking him by scent was easy enough; he was in charge of the Princess' escort (a most likely terrible position for him to hold), unsurprising given his status as a Square-class mage, and his rank as a Captain of the Gryphon Knights, and as such, he generally wasn't far from the Princess during the day. Once I had his scent, tracking him during the night was easy enough, and of the three nights the Princess planned to stay at the Valliere Estates, it only took two to find him up to no good._

_Specifically, meeting with 'Longueville,' in order to deliver a certain ultimatum._

_Unlike my own treatment (delivered back when I was still mostly delirious), Longueville got the 'expensive' treatment, meaning she doesn't need to learn how to walk all over again, though she's still been spending a fair bit of her days rebuilding muscle strength in her legs, because a few weeks of not using them at _all_ does cause atrophy. That's her stated excuse, anyways, I think she's actually been casing the place, and getting a feel for what the common folk on the Valliere lands are like. I doubt she's stupid enough to try to rob the Vallieres, especially when the Princess is around, and given what Louise did to her on her last little outing, but I'm not familiar enough with her character to be certain._

_Whatever else she may or may not have been planning, once Wardes caught up with her, 'Foquet's' demeanor changed. Primarily, because he initially approached her in a flirtatious manner, and she, playing the part of a commoner, couldn't afford to simply offer direct rejection to a nobleman, especially one of such rank. Once he was within arm's reach, he cast some sort of spell that cut off sound, forcing me to close the distance. His eyes were sharp, but I had more skill in stealth than any other likely alive in Halkeginia, backed by being Tiny cat, rather than a Medium human, and I was able to slip through the edge of his spell undetected._

"_-It would be a shame if my friends had to pay her a visit."_

_Even lacking context, the murder that grew in Longeuville's eyes at the first of Wardes' words that I caught, told me essentially all that I needed to know._

"_What do you want of me?" She hissed at him, clearly wanting to claw his eyes out, and when he smirked, I wanted to too._

"_You,"_ _Wardes said with a smirk, "Are going to ensure that the Princess' little attempt to ally with Germania falls through. You're a thief; I'd tend to think that someone stealing the Princess' best friend right in the middle of the Emperor's Palace should do the job. You don't even need to hurt anyone," Wardes paused for a moment, and his voice became harsh, "And you will _not_ hurt my Louise. You'll simply make sure that the 'Germanian agents' who have taken her do her no harm, until the gallant young hero," Wardes' voice regained its jovial tone as he leaned in towards her and smiled, "That's me, by the way, comes in to save the day, _and_ recover proof of involvement that will make an alliance between Tristain and Germania impossible."_

"_I will need finds to hire the mercenaries for the job," Foquet said flatly, "My own resources are still tied up at the Academy."_

"_I'll provide the mercenaries myself," Wardes said dismissively, stepping back from the woman gracefully, before dropping his anti-listening spell, "I bid you good night, young miss. Do consider the offer, the Knights can always use competent clerks, and I know that some of my subordinates are looking for wives. I'm sure they'd appreciate a displaced person of such talents as your own."_

_And then he left. I watched Longueville until she left as well, but though conflict showed in hints on her face and through her posture, she was enough of an actor that even with my prodigious skill at observing people, I couldn't tell if she'd tentatively decided something she was unhappy about, or was yet unhappy about the decision she had to make._

((()))

"He was _flirting?_" Louise interjected, an anger that had not been seen from her for more than a month beginning to flare within her voice and on her face, "With _the headmaster's secretary?_"

Siesta cringed slightly, and hastened about collecting her mistress's discarded clothing of the day, as the youngest Valliere stared down at the cat on her bed.

'_...Yes,_' The familiar wrote out slowly, before its pace accelerated rapidly, paw moving at speeds difficult to track for an untrained eye, '_Though it seemed not to be a serious thing to him, and at the end, he spoke of the Knights taking Longueville on as a clerk, specifically mentioning that some of his subordinates were looking for wives._'

Louise blinked, started (mostly) out of her anger by the unexpected turn of conversation.

"_Marriage?_" Louise said, a hint of disbelief in her voice, "From what I have seen, Longueville is an efficient woman, but the nobles serving in the Griffon Knights are usually well-positioned to marry up in rank, rather than down. Certainly she is an attractive woman," Louise's scowl returned in full force, "But I would think it far more likely that a young nobleman looking for a _mistress-_"

'_I believe Wardes is under the impression that Longueville is secretly a noble from Albion,_' the cat wrote out hastily, '_having gone into hiding as a result of the unrest therein._'

"He'd _better_ be right," Louise growled, near-violence in her voice, "He's _not_ allowed to have a mistress!"

((()))

_So much for getting Louise on board with this; it's pretty clear that however much calmer she may be, she's not exactly in a fully stable frame of mind yet._

((()))

"You know," Louise said with a faint smile, "You don't really appreciate the sights during a journey, until you've taken one while blind."

Henrietta glanced out the window of their carriage, before turning back to the other girl, a delicate eyebrow raised.

"Every once and a while," Louise continued, looking out at the forest flanking the road they were moving along, "The desire takes you to look out, and see what you are passing by. Now, both of us can see clearly, and that idle curiosity is satisfied just as quickly as it arises. Perhaps a particularly beautiful river or mountain will catch your interest for a time, but one thinks little of it, all told. When that idle curiosity _can't_ be fulfilled however..."

Louise glanced over at Henrietta, her smile taking on a wry flavor.

"The curiosity simply builds," Louise said, some amusement in her tone, "I'm grateful I am of a more academic bent myself. Having Siesta read to me kept the curiosity from becoming too burdensome."

"Hm," Henrietta said, studying Siesta curiously, "Literate, and with that unusual shape to your eyes; you're from Tarbes, aren't you?"

"Yes, your highness," Siesta said, bowing from within her seat, "I am honored that you think so well of my home."

"It is one of relatively few freehold towns within Tristain," Henrietta said with a gracious smile, "The captain of my Musketeers, Chevalier Agnes, hails from one such town, and after seeing a commoner give such fine service, it has sparked my interest in learning more about such places. Tell me, Siesta, have you been to many other towns aside from your own?"

"Only in passing, your highness," Siesta answered, starting to get a bit twitchy at the sustained attention from royalty, "A night's rest in a couple of towns when I was traveling to the Academy, and a day's visit to the nearest town on the Valliere estates."

"Within your limited experience," Henrietta asked, leaning a little towards the nervous maid, "Which of these towns would you say was most like your home?"

"Oh, certainly the Valliere town your highness," Siesta replied promptly, "The other towns were somewhat unkempt."

"I'm glad to hear it," Henrietta said with a gentle smile, "All the other freehold towns I have either visited or had firsthand accounts of, were either abject messes, or amongst the most prosperous in Tristain, much as those on the Valliere estates. Could you tell me more of your home?"

The Princess was able to keep Siesta talking through most of their first day's travels.

((()))

_It was on our second week across the border that we ran into trouble. Or perhaps I should say, 'I' ran into trouble.' Or maybe I should say 'I became trouble for someone else and ran into them.' Whatever. There was trouble, and there was running._

_Also, fire. Lots and lots of fire._

_Once we finished passing through the Zerbst estates (and Louise's posture stopped being stiffer than cast iron), we started moving into wilder, less-settled terrain. Unlike Germany's territory in the dimension I originated from, Germania in Halkeginia was a _far_ more massive nation, covering terrain a bit like the Ukraine did on an old Risk board, spanning essentially the entire connection between Europe and Asia._

_That much territory is hard to control, and thus, bandits. No mere band of brigands was foolish enough to tangle with the Princess' traveling party, of course. A dozen Gryphon Knights, sixty Musketeers, and that was just the explicit military. Louise would be _**hell**_ on anyone who tried to lay hand on the Princess, who was no slouch herself. And of course there was me, even if my base damage was down to 1d4+3._

_Given that I found the brigands, rather than them finding our little convoy, it was really just going to be me against whatever they had, but I was confident that I would be more than a match for them. Even if my Wizard spells, Druid spells, Psionic Powers, Spell-like Abilities, and some of my Supernatural Abilities (such as Hide in Plain Sight) were all blocked. I still had +42 Stealth, an AC of 42, and five Desert Wind Maneuvers with which to dish out the Fire Damage._

((()))

"I am _Zerbst_," Kirche said, her tone a mixture of confidence and derision as she stared the bandit leader (a disgraced noble judging by his wand), "Do you _really_ wish to cause trouble with my family so close to our land?"

"I'm thinking that you're _Kirche_ of the Zerbst," The brigand replied cockily, leering pointedly for a moment at the low neckline of Kirche's blouse, "And that if _you_ were to go missing, your family would be more happy than sad, if you get what I mean."

"If you know who I am," Kirche said, leaning back (and sticking out her chest slightly to demonstrate that his filthy gaze in no way intimidated her) and raising an eyebrow, "You should also know that I'm a Triangle Mage, something I have in common with my friend Tabitha here."

Tabitha glanced up from her book towards Kirche, then the bandit leader, nodded briefly, then returned her attention to the tome in hand.

"Which would make attempting to challenge us, and our familiars," Kirche nodded towards Flame to her right, and the far more imposing Sylphid who was looming behind her and Tabitha, "Would be the height of foolishness, unless you are some sort of legendary Square I haven' heard of before."

"Oh," The rogue mage said cockily, "_I_ may not be, and I'll admit, the plan was to catch you two sleeping, but I'm not exactly the only mage amongst my band of friends here."

Kirche, slightly more wary at the man's confidence in his claim, eyed the edges of the clearing she and Tabitha had been camping in. Thirty men with bows lined the trees, and she had seen hints of others slipping through the surrounding forest. Arrows were easy enough to protect against for a Wind Mage, especially one as acocmplished as Tabitha, but three or four mages could either penetrate such shields, or pick them apart with counter-magics.

On the whole, a much more dangerous proposition than a single foe for Kirche to 'play' with, while Tabitha educated the commoner thugs following the rogue noble's lead.

((()))

…

_I had no words. Must be narrative convention, methinks. Whether or not that was the reason behind Tabitha and Kirche being less than a dozen miles from the Princess' convoy, chatter amongst the bandits (unaware of the presence of a sentient cat in their midst) about what would happen to Kirche once they got their hands on her was fairly disgusting._

_It was their comparison to _past_ offenses of a like nature they'd committed, however, that sealed their death warrants. Considering the danger of precipitating an attack upon the two teenage girls the brigands had surrounded, I decided to use stealth as my opening means of offense, which unfortunately removed most of my damage-boosting abilities, as they were all dependent upon Desert Wind flame maneuvers._

_Still, stealth enabled me to close with my first target, one of the bandits without a bow that was simply waiting in the background, undetected, and getting eight attacks in a round cures many of 'low damage output's' ills. I waited until I was directly beneath him, checking to ensure that he was out of direct line of sight of his 'friends,' then lunged upwards, and shredded the front half of his neck in a bloody flurry of claws._

((()))

Kirche, while fairly observant, had nothing on the lethally-honed acuity of perception that Tabitha possessed. It took only three of the bandits falling silently, their throats cut before they could make a sound, for her to notice that someone else was depopulating their foes; it took the bandits themselves a full dozen. Sudden panic ripped through the right flank of their foes as the archers abruptly realized that half of their melee support had been killed before they even knew they were under attack.

Fortunately, this caused them to fall into confusion. Unfortunately, it pushed the rest of the bandits to attack.

Kirche was quick, and conjured a blast of fire, directing it at the man who had been trying to talk them into surrendering for the past few minutes the instant that the arrows began to fly. The bandit mage was swift, diving backwards and attempting to raise a shield to save his own life. Sylphid's responded with haste as well, rearing back and inhaling to breath ice upon their foes. Tabitha was swiftest of them all, raising a barrier of air that would shield Kirche, Flame, Sylphid's head, and herself from arrows.

Unfortunately, though the mages concealed amongst the bandits in the trees were slowest to respond, but _also_ had known what they were doing, and did not target Sylphid's head (the only place dot or line mages could hope to mortally wound a dragon), but instead her _wings_, shredding the folds of flesh that made up their primary flight surfaces. The option of tactical area retreat had been removed.

The bandits had made a mistake, however, they had hurt someone that Tabitha cared about; more, they had hurt someone that Tabitha felt _responsible _for. Tabitha closed her book, and slipped it into a pocket, and focused the entirety of her attention on the world around her.

Then, things got _ugly_.

((()))

_Once the archers loosed, I stopped with the 'subtle,' and pulled out Burning Blade. An extra d6+18 damage on top of the paltry 1d4+3 I did at base; taking a bandit down changed from 'a full assault to the throat,' to 'two swipes and they're toast.'_

_Literally. Fire damage and all._

_I leapt between them as I went, taking advantage of Spring Attack and Bounding Assault to take them down as I moved, hitting whatever appendage or torso came within (the admittedly short) range of my claws, leaving smoking corpses in my wake as I sought to thin them down before the girls could be overwhelmed by sheer numbers._

**Down.**

_I looked up from where I'd taken cover behind a tree._

_Which was now the _stump_ of a tree._

_Shivering momentarily in place, I leapt atop the trunk, twisting my head around as far as it could go, and rapidly attempting to take count of all the trees that had just been severed just over a foot above ground level. After less than a second, I gave up and mentally labeled 'all of them' as an accurate count, and prepared myself to make an Acrobatics check to end all Acrobatics checks._

_Around me, ever tree within fifty feet began to tumble slowly down towards the forest floor._

((()))

Kirche had fought Tabitha before; their fight had, in fact, been the formative encounter for their friendship a year prior.

Seventeen seconds after Sylphid had been injured, Kirche came to the inescapable conclusion that while she had _fought_ Tabitha before, Tabitha had not fought her _with intent to kill._ And Tabitha, when she wanted to kill, was _terrifying._ The first spell that the tiny bluenette had cast was a wind-barrier to ward off arrows and lesser spells; the second she cast (much more forcefully) was a flat disc of wind blades, that cut off the surrounding trees roughly a foot above the ground, and severed the legs of most of the surrounding bandits at the same height.

Four brigands managed to avoid dismemberment, four who stood out very distinctly (and literally as the only hostiles still standing) when their assorted shields flared, absorbing the damage.

"_Shit!"_ Their leader shouted, and Kirche decided to clean his filthy mouth out.

With fire.

The survivors fled into the surrounding forest, a dangerous decision as the trees began to tumble down all around them.

((()))

_Bullet hell._

_Fortunately, or unfortunately depending upon your perspective, I spent some time in my home dimension playing the Tohou games; I never managed to beat one, but I did get to the last level on one or two of them._

_Being stuck in the body of a cat, and trying to navigate an entire forest's worth of falling trunks and branches, was every bit as bad. The experience even shared 'being a small hit box' with the Tohou bullet-hell games. Not that the trees, crashing into each other, branches snapping as they fell, was anywhere _near_ as bad as the real experience had been._

_Low mass worked in my favor as I leapt, tumbled, and dove over falling trunks, clawing my way up one, only to leap free of another, nearly be crushed by a third, and whipsaw myself beneath a fourth up onto another. The fifth tree crashed into another falling trunk on its way down, slowing its fall, and I took advantage of the opportunity to run up the trunk, dodging two swinging branches as I did so. The branches would probably have scratched me and left a welt if I was in my original human form, but with my drastically reduced mass, they would have likely sent me flying instead, had I allowed them to strike me._

_An immensely thick Oak, far larger than any of the other trunks I had seen falling as yet, smashed down on my improvised ladder, and I deployed Sudden Leap to clear the obstacle. I met with only partial success, as I ended up tangling myself in the Oak's dense branches, their more chaotic arrangement than the ordered evergreens I had mostly been moving through proving a far sterner barrier to my movement. Taking a gamble, I chose to ascend to the 'highest' branch on the 'top' of the falling Oak, which paid off as by that point, none of the surrounding trunks long enough to collide with the Oak still stood taller than it._

_Then the Oak began to _roll_, as it came to rest on the chaotic pile of untrimmed logs beneath it, and lever motion combined with centripetal force swiftly hurled me away into the air._

_Directly towards one of the surviving bandits; a fleeing mage, judging by the spells he was using to safeguard his retreat._

_I activated Searing Charge._

((()))

Experienced combat mages, both Kirche's and Tabitha's attention was seized as what had first been subconsciously categorized as 'loose flying debris' abruptly erupted into flame, and rocketed downward onto one of the fleeing bandit-magi, just beyond the line of felled trees. A pained cry erupted, the sound unmistakeably emerging from a human throat, even if it was barely audible over the thunder of the last tree trunks settling.

"Will you be alright here with Sylphid?" Kirche asked, glancing at her smaller friend.

Tabitha nodded, and the fire-mage swept up into the air, levitating to pursue the remaining bandits.

((()))

_The bastard was tougher than I expected; I'll give him that, but that only meant it took a second strike after my Searing Charge for him to die. That left his 'friends' to bring down, and for the first time since I'd been forcibly Polymorphed, the thing I cursed most was my lost speed. I was still faster than them, but I wanted the bastards down **now.**_

_Eighteen seconds of furious pursuit later, I bore down on the slowest of my quarry, and lunged up onto the back of his neck, my pathetically short claws empowered with Castigating Strike, the Devoted Spirit maneuver erupting through his body and smashing outwards in a shockwave of retributive energy. None of them were outright slain, but the brigand I 'rested' on and one of the three others took the sixty-foot blast of energy hard, leaving them disoriented enough that I was able to hamstring them as I pressed onward in pursuit of their 'comrades.'_

_Comrades who left them to die without a second thought. Apparently wind magi by the local system, they cast some form of spell which hastened their movements, allowing them to surpass my speed, and begin pulling away from me._

_Anger, already present within me, swelled furiously, and I screamed in anger as **my prey**__began to escape, thrashing against the curse-wrought restraints holding me back from my own magic, my shape-shifting, my Psionics._

((()))

Although Kirche was powerful enough to cast an off-affinity spell such as Flight, she was by no means _experienced _with such a thing, and thus, her flight speed through the forest wasn't as high as she would prefer, though she _did_ eventually catch up with the fleeing mages and their pursuer.

Which, apparently, was a screaming cat.

One that was evading the spells the brigand mages had started hurling back at it with an effortless grace. Kirche was rather impressed, not only by the animal's agility, but the fact that the mages felt need to run from it in the first place. In fact, as she focused on the cat, she realized it looked somewhat familiar, perhaps-

Her thoughts were cut off as one of the mages, apparently a Wind/Fire Line mage, hurled a bead of glowing energy at the cat, which exploded into what every Fire or combat mage worth their salt recognized as the ubiquitous Fireball spell. The spell struck dead-on, as they almost always did, drowning the cat and everything within twenty feet of it in flame; Kirche winced, she'd hate to have to tell the-

The cat emerged from the miniature firestorm, utterly unscathed; Kirche was so shocked, she ran into a tree.

((()))

_**Evasion**, bitches._

((()))

As most such things were, the brigand's somewhat-concealed encampment was a disorganized mess; it had been constructed right in the middle of the forest, so as to hide it from aerial patrols (the only effective way to patrol a nation the sheer size of Germania), but no real effort had been made to conceal it from someone coming in from below the treeline.

When two of the ten mages who were part of the band of thieves ran screaming into the camp, sans the four other mages and hundred other brigands they'd left behind, there was no disciplined response, no contingency plan for dealing with their 'hideout' being found, no coherent reaction of any form. Even if the half of the band still at the camp had simply scattered into the forest to flee, some of them might have survived what came next.

_Some_.

Three full minutes passed after the two mages made their way into the camp, nothing else had been spotted moving out of the surrounding forest, and none of the other brigands had been able to get anything from the two except hysterical shouting about Square-class Wind Mages, and flaming cats.

Then a yowling scream emerged from what had been dubbed the 'whore pit.'

((()))

_I'd seen women who'd been molested, assaulted, and all-out raped before, but none of them had I ever seen with dead eyes like those I saw within that hole._

_Unsurprising, considering that some of the bandits also seemed to use it as a toilet._

_**RAGE.**_

((()))

Kirche arrived at the edge of the camp, moving more cautiously through the trees, just in time to hear the cat scream/yowl again, its voice, far more powerful than an animal of its size should have carried, echoing up out of what looked like a midden-hole. For a moment, Kirche was worried that the brigands had somehow trapped the creature, but then it leapt up out of the hole, slamming down onto the earth directly alongside the pit. Somehow, that instigated a collapse; apparently there was a hollow alongside the shit-hole, part of which had just been caved in, though Kirche was unsure as to _why_.

Then the cat _breathed_ in, its form visibly inflating even from the treeline where Kirche hovered, half concealed amongst the branches. It breathed _out_, and a glowing yellow haze streamed out of its mouth and nostrils; one of the brigands was approaching it with a sword, but recoiled as a blast of hot air suddenly washed outward from the cat.

Then its single visible eye began to glow, and Kirche _knew_ it was Louise's familiar.

The grass began to wither.

Bands of flame flickered into existence, twisting in a wild, forceful pattern around the cat, as it _**breathed**_again, more flames pouring forth from its mouth.

The eyepatch covering its empty eye socket ignited, burning away in an instant, revealing a hellish pit of volcanic fury, a heat that went beyond merely physical, Kirche could _feel_ the hatred and anger glowing from the maimed pit in the cat's face, and her instincts screamed _DANGER _at her.

Kirche ducked behind the nearest tree trunk, but she couldn't bring herself to stop watching, and cast the best fire-shield she could over the tree and her exposed head, as she watched the whirling flames completely envelop the cat.

Then the cat screamed again, and the world exploded into fire.

((()))

The roar of a not-so-distant explosion washed over Tabitha and Sylphid, but the bluenette paid it no attention, far too occupied with tending to her familiar's wounds.

((()))

A dull rumble echoed across the road, and almost every head, soldier, servant, noble, and royal alike turned to stare in that direction. Some, such as Henrietta and Siesta, were confused. Others, such as Wardes and the other guards, set about sending a scout group to investigate.

Louise Francoise de la Valliere was shivering in her seat, as she suddenly felt an anger like nothing she had ever experienced before in her life.

((()))

Kirche felt a shiver run down her spine; partially caused by realizing how close she had just come to death, partially caused by _excitement_, and partially plain old-fashioned fear, as she clung to the heavily-battered tree she had been sheltering behind, and peaked around to look at the camp again. It took her some seconds to discern what she as seeing through having been partially flash-blinded, but her nose already told her much of the story.

The camp had been _leveled_. Not a single tree, not a single tent, not a single human or animal, stood in the place the brigands had once called 'home.' Half-incinerated ashen corpses, some torn apart by the force of the blast, littered the newly-made clearing, and as Kirche's hearing cleared, the sound of shattered bits of wood clattering to the ground, all that remained of the trees, reached her.

And seated in the crater at the epicenter of the ashen clearing, sat the source of the flames; a 'common' cat, hissing as it bared its fangs and studied the destruction it had wrought, tail thrashing violently behind it.

((()))

AN: Two, maybe three more chapters of this arc planned out. We'll see what happens from there.


	10. Dungeon Crawler in Halkegenia pt 4

AN: For those of you curious, no, that wasn't a spell. That was Inferno Blast, the most spectacular (though not the most mechanically potent, unless you're fighting armies) of the level 9 Strikes from Tome of Battle. It has some pretty awesome flavor, and it looks like I managed to translate that fairly well into the story. Props to anyone who can spot other maneuvers Jaeger uses in this chapter.

Edit: Bolding format error corrected.

((()))

_Help me dig_, the cat cut into the glassed surface of the scorched clearing it had just created, before turning around and beginning to claw its way down into the earth. Kirche, floating above the glassed ground, at as low an altitude as she comfortably could with the heat it was giving off, stared at the cat for a few seconds, before shrugging, and turning her magic to assist the cat in its self-assigned task.

It took less than a minute for her to levitate enough earth to reveal a mid-sized cave filled with filthy women, most of them young (a few more girls than women), and almost as many sick. Kirche had heard of such things before, but she had never _seen_ them before, and her customary flighty and jovial persona slipped away like a swiftly discarded cloak. Her first instinct was to remove the girls from the filthy pit they had been trapped within, but the ground was far too hot to be safe for them, and she was far from powerful enough with Wind spells to keep _all_ of them airborne.

Fortunately, it was only a few minutes before Tabitha joined her, Sylphid's freshly-healed wings bearing the petite Gallian to the scorched ruin of the bandit camp swiftly. It was subtle, but Kirche was able to recognize the faint shimmer of Air-magic wrapped around Sylphid's wings, reinforcing them and smoothing the Wind dragons flight. It took only a single glance and exchange of nods for Tabitha and Kirche to agree upon a course of action, and the shuddering girls were swiftly levitated out of the hole, over the scorched encampment, and into the nearest section of relatively undamaged forest.

The cat, apparently untroubled by the glowing heat beneath it, simply scampered across the glassed camp floor to join them.

"How did you _do_ that?" Kirche hissed quietly as she slowly released her levitation spell, touching down lightly beside the feline, "And what _are_ you? You're no mere _cat_."

'_I am a shape-changer,' _the cat scrawled out into the dirt, '_trapped in this form by a curse, though I will not allow the curse to stand. I will explain more later, but in the meantime, _please_ claim credit for the rescue when the Princess' guard arrives to investigate._'

"The _Princess?_" Kirche asked, a hint of incredulity entering her voice, but the cat had already rubbed out its message with a paw, and scampered off towards one of the younger girls that had been pulled out of the pit.

Kirche would have chased after the cat anyways, but Tabitha took hold of her sleeve, and pointed up to the sky North of them, where a trio of Gryphons with riders were approaching.

((()))

"What happened, Captain Agnes?" Henrietta asked, leaning out the window of her carriage to speak with the scarred head of her musketeer corps.

"A group of brigands attempted to accost a pair of Triangle mages," Agnes said with a snort, "The girls trashed the brigands, then chased the survivors to their camp and leveled it. Captain Wardes reports that the mages have requested to speak with Your Highness."

"Of course," Henrietta said with a nod and a faint smile, "Is there anything else?"

"Yes," Agnes said, her hard countenance growing even harsher, "A number of young women being held captive by the brigands were rescued, and what is to be done with them must be decided."

"How many, and what condition are they in?" Henrietta immediately asked, her smile disappearing as she caught on to the implications of what Agnes had said.

"Around three dozen, Your Highness, " Agnes said, "And though none have broken bones or combat-related injuries, they are almost all malnourished, sick, bruised, or a combination of the three."

"Have them brought to the caravan at once," The Princess declared, her wavering voice at odds with her decisive words, "And have the commoner staff break out appropriate supplies to tend them, while the water mages form up with me for magical treatment."

"At once, Princess," Agnes declared, saluting sharply before marching back towards the Gryphon Knight who had conveyed Wardes' report of the bandit encampment back to the caravan.

Henrietta withdrew into the carriage, before closing the curtains, Siesta cluing into what the Princess was doing and closing those on the opposite side of the carriage.

"Louise, Siesta," Henrietta said hastily, "Please help me find my healer's smock, and Louise, you may want to change into something readily disposable as well. This will likely be messy."

((()))

Siesta, having grown up in a vibrant farming community, was no stranger to seeing injury, and hearing of the occasional assault from amongst rowdier townsfolk or travelers visiting Tarbes. Louise, having grown up on the Valliere Estate, inarguably the most lawful part of Tristain, had _not_ had much experience with such things, and what she saw over the rest of that day came as a shock to her. An _enraging_ shock, but Louise had plenty of experience with being angry, and forced herself to not act on it while Henrietta needed her assistance.

Thirty-three women, the youngest scarcely thirteen, the oldest just over thirty, and all of them had clearly been sexually abused. One of them was even a _noble_, though the fifteen-year-old girl was too incoherent to even attempt spell-casting, and had apparently been little challenge for the disgraced mages amongst the brigands to capture. Several of the younger girls flinched whenever anyone touched them, but the oldest were almost worse, with the dull, resigned look in their eyes. A few of the young women had eyes filled with fury, and would clench their fists whenever one of the men in the convoy came near them; Louise was almost afraid to touch them, but without the help of the male servants or guards, there simply were not enough hands to go around.

And given how readily Princess Henrietta dove into healing the rescued women, Louise could hardly stand by idly while her friend and Monarch got her hands dirty, literally. Louise had known that the Princess was a Triangle of Water, and had training as a healer; what she had not known was that she was an _experienced_ healer, one who knew not only how to treat wounds effectively, but handle distraught patients gracefully as well. There were three healers with the caravan; one of the Royal Healers sent along to ensure the Princess' health, a second amongst the Gryphon Knights who functioned primarily as a battlefield medic, and the Princess herself. As the Gryphon Knight was a man, and thus forbidden from approaching the rescued women by the Princess' decree, Henrietta and the woman in her mid-twenties that the Royal Healers had sent ended up treating all thirty-three patients themselves.

Louise and Siesta were beside the Princess with each patient she treated. Louise had never seen the intimate parts of a woman outside of her immediate family before, and after the damage she saw, she didn't think she ever wanted to again. Or ever wanted to have intimate relations with a man, for that matter.

For the first time in many years, Louise wished that her mother was there, so that she could ask her how such things could possibly be allowed to happen.

((()))

_Restricted as I was, there was precious little I could do for the women, but respect their privacy. Little I could do directly anyways. Indirectly, I had other options, more specifically, level-based options._

_I had just hit level twenty-one. Epic level._

_And my curses damned near made the breach into truly broken power tiers worthless. I was theoretically capable of casting ninth level spells, manifesting ninth level Psion Powers, and initiating ninth level maneuvers. Not what I had once been capable of, but from what little I remembered of my chaotic (and horrifying) time within the barrier realm, it was hardly surprising that I came out of it the not the same as I entered._

_Of course, all of that except the Initiator levels were barred by the Dragon's Curse, which still held me. After all, in the barrier realm, Dragons were gods._

_So._

_My abilities as a Swiftblade; worthless, as I could not cast Haste._

_Druidic Healing spells, worthless._

_Hide in Plain Sight, useless._

_Inertial Armor, Force Screen, various forms of combat prescience and precognition, True Strike, Time Stop, Mordenkainen's Disjunction, Wild Shape, all of it useless._

_I wasn't helpless, but still, _so much_ had been lost, and I was no longer a top-tier combatant._

_The single most crippling factor of all, however, was being trapped in the form of a cat. I don't know if the loss of the Paragon Template I once held came from the Dragon's Curse, my time in the barrier realm, or something else altogether, but I lacked the raw physical strength and prowess to make it viable for combat. Even that didn't touch on the most irritating aspect of it; being unable to physically _speak.

_D'n'D, however, was a very broad system, with a great number of options, and once I'd seen that the women were safely with the caravan, I'd turned my attention to working through them to find what I wanted/needed. Unfortunately, what I'd found was both encouraging and discouraging simultaneously._

_Wait._

_Wild Shape?_

_When the _hell_ did I gain the ability to Wild Shape? It's ineffecient and counter-productive for a high level character, the only use it has is being able to spellcast while being a damn bear, because Natural Spell is broken._

_And I don't even _have_ Natural Spell._

_I swear, that entire pocket dimension has to possess some kind of mind-altering properties, I have no idea what the hell I was thinking reconfiguring my build like this._

_Or maybe someone else did._

_Whatever._

_No Epic Feat for me, I needed to talk, which meant Master of Many Forms, which meant I needed Endurance, which is a shitty feat, but I'd be taking it anyways._

_Damn Lolis._

((()))

"This is the first time you've seen something like this, isn't it?" An unwelcome voice asked.

"Go away Kirche," Louise said, her voice brittle with physical and emotional exhaustion.

"I don't think that would be a good idea right now," Kirche said, walking around the small clearing Louise was seated within, and into the Valliere's field of vision.

To the pinkette's considerable surprise, Kirche was dressed in a comprehensively modest dress, complete with a shawl that concealed even the outline of her figure. She was also carrying Louise's familiar, which had curled up into a ball of stiff tension in her arms.

"What's with the dress?" Louise demanded harshly, turning her whole focus on the larger woman.

"I'm not so crass as to flaunt myself in front of women who have been through such hardship," Kirche said wryly, "I've seen what being taken like that can do to a woman, and I wish them no further pain. From the way you've been acting, I take it this is the first time you have been exposed to such things?"

Louise said nothing, turning away from Kirche and glaring off into the forest.

"I am not surprised that a Valliere would be a stranger to such things," Kirche said, Louise's hands clenching into fists at her words, "It has been some generations since your family crushed all such outlaws in your lands, and few have been foolish enough to attempt to enter them since."

Louise's fists slowly relaxed, and she turned to look at the Zerbst again, confusion warring with frustration on her face.

"Oh, don't be so surprised," Kirche said with a snort, "Part of the reason the feud between our two families has endured so long, is because both of our families are _strong enough_ for it to have endured. Mine, because there are so many of us, and yours, because there's at least one Square Mage in every generation of Vallieres. Some of my family think its because you are descendents of a Royal bastard ten or so generations back."

"You're a Triangle, Zerbst," Louise said sharply, "Maybe even a square, by what the Gryphon Knights said of the encampment. You know better than that."

"Oh, I certainly do," Kirche said, gracefully seating herself beside Louise and extending her arms to offer the pinkette her cat, "But we need to talk about this cat of yours. _He_ was the one who destroyed the camp, after all."

Louise sighed and wilted as she took her familiar from the older girl, sparing only a momentary and mild glare for the Zerbst before turning her attention to the stiff cat.

"I suppose you saw him using his fire?" Louise asked, resignation in her tone.

"Yes," Kirche said, a ghost of her customary smirk coming to her face, "I don't know what exactly he is, but he's clearly capable of Square-level Fire Magic. Why didn't you tell me we shared an affinity, Louise?"

"We don't," Louise said grumpily, carefully laying her familiar over her knees, mindful of how he would squirm when he came out of his stupor if she held him in a way he did not like, "I'm not a Fire Mage, my Familiar can just use Fire Magic."

"Of course!" Kirche said, affecting stunned revelation, "Clearly your-, what is his name anyways?"

"I don't know," Louise said, eying Kirche carefully as she began to stroke the cat's fur, "He's never told me."

"It _was_ him who scratched that message out on your window sill the night you blinded yourself, wasn't it?" Kirche asked, a hint of eagerness in her voice.

"Yes," Louise said, some stiffness returning to her voice, "He does not communicate with words often, mostly due to how inconvenient it is, but that was the first time."

"Why then?" Kirche asked, curiosity rising in her voice, "You'd had him for months at that point!"

Louise's expression turned stony as she remembered that night, and she glared at the Zerbst, who started back slightly at the sudden change in the Valliere's expression.

"_Why_," Louise growled, a hint of iron showing in her eyes, "Would be because I was at a breaking point from the failure and _harassment_ I'd been dealing with at the Academy."

"Oh," Kirche said, leaning back and laughing a little awkwardly, "I suppose little Jaeger was being a good Familiar then, helping you out of your funk. I'm just glad you had Foquet's Golem to take your frustration out on, instead of me!"

"Don't be an idiot," Louise said, snorting disdainfully, before turning her attention back to the cat on her knees, "You're an aggravation, but if people were killed for being aggravating, there'd be less than a hundred people in all of Halkeginia."

"Ah, that famous Valliere control," Kirche said with a sigh, her tone (surprisingly to Louise) respectful rather than amused or disdainful, "Although I miss our little spats, I do have to admit that the surety of self you've demonstrated ever since you blinded yourself _has_ been rather impressive. Is there any way I could convince you to begin verbally sparring with me again when we get back to school?"

"Is that what it was to you?" Louise said flatly, "A game?"

"Mostly," Kirche said with a shrug, "Do you know anything of my history with my own family?"

Louise shook her head stiffly.

"I had an engagement once," Kirche said a little whimsically, looking down at the cat as she did so, "To an older man. I know it is a thing us noblewomen need to accept sometimes, but this man was _much_ older. I was fifteen, he was thirty five. And he made it _very_ clear when he met me, that while he expected me to bear him an heir, his real interest was in my body," She paused, and her voice turned a bit hard, "_Using_ my body, specifically. He had no interest in any form of relationship beyond that whatsoever. So, seeing the kind of man he was, I allowed him to touch me inappropriately in public before we were wed, and then I burned his dick off for the presumption and impropriety."

Kirche turned her gaze back to Louise, an iron fury in her eyes that the Valliere had never seen before.

"Two of his female servants came to me," Kirche said harshly, "_In tears_, thanking me, before the end of the day. They showed me some of the bruises he'd left them when they received his 'attentions.'"

Silence came, their gazes locked, and for the first time Louise saw a passion in 'The Ardent' that she could respect. After nearly a minute, Louise smiled faintly, and broke their locked gazes, turning her attention back to her familiar again.

"What did you call him?"

"Jaeger," Kirche said, smiling again herself, "It means 'Hunter' in Germanian."

"I know," Louise said, nodding, "I'm just curious as to _why_. I do not know if I have seen him hunting, or with what was clearly a kill of his own, a single time."

"He hunted the brigands," Kirche said, "They fled miles through the forest, needing magic to keep ahead of him. They _started_ running because of Tabitha though."

"Because of _Tabitha?_" Louise asked, confusion in her voice, "If she hadn't summoned a Dragon, I'd have considered her the least threatening student in our entire year!"

"Tabitha is a Triangle," Kirche said seriously, a hint of grim in her voice, "And a Chevalier. She doesn't talk about her life in Gallia much, but I know she's seen combat, and more than just a few times. When Sylphid was wounded, she became _angry_."

"Who would be stupid enough to attack a pair of mages with such obviously powerful familiars anyways?" Louise asked, her tone half-rhetorical, part dismissive, part pure fatigue.

"Fools," A new, raspy voice entered the conversation, and Jaeger began unwinding from his taut ball on Louise's knees, "Perhaps the most common kind of fools amongst all men; those who think that might makes right."

"Filthy brutes," Louise spat as she stared at her familiar, the cat standing upright and turning to face the two, and to her considerable surprise, Jaeger snarled at her.

"Are you so different?" He demanded, an angry heat in his steadily-clearing voice that Louise felt blazing in her own chest, "Tell me, Louise le Blanc Francoise de la Valliere, what exactly is it in Halkeginia that gives a noble the right to rule over the commoner?"

Louise opened her mouth, rote words ready on the tip of her tongue, but she stilled the instinctive response that had been drilled into her, and studied her familiar's body-language instead. His teeth were bared, his back ever so slightly arched, and the empty eye socket glaring at her was flat-out disturbing, even without the anger reflected in his intact eye.

"That's right, _noble_," Jaeger said harshly, the shape of his voice clearing, "And while _your_ family, from what I have seen, honorably discharges the responsibility that their authority bears, ask yourself this: Do you think the other young nobles at the Academy would be as honorable as your parents have been?"

"Few, if any," Kirche said, cutting into the stare-down between 'Familiar and Master,' "The Vallieres set a standard few others match; it is part of what makes them such excellent adversaries. There are some who manage a standard that is at least passable, however."

Jaeger turned his baleful gaze upon the dusky-skinned Germanian, sizing her up before looking her directly in the eyes.

"What of you, Kirche Augusta Frederica Von Anhault Zerbst ?" He demanded, "What will you do when you hold legal authority over those of lesser power than yourself?"

"I won't," Kirche said with a snort, looking away to the edge of the clearing, "I know the reputation I have built myself, do you think it was not deliberate? I will at most, be a mistress to some lord I find amenable to my tastes, and more likely simply end up a soldier."

"Nobles in Halkeginian armies hold officer's ranks," Jaeger growled, "Even if you never are landed, even if you never wed, you _still_ hold the authority your social stature as a noble, your power as a Triangle Mage, grants you. _What will you do with it?_"

The feline was nearly shouting the last, his small body producing an impressive volume for its size. Kirche turned away, feeling a hint of shame, something she simply was not accustomed to any longer.

"I had never thought of such things in that way," She admitted, "I really am not certain."

"You best had," Jaeger ground out, visibly working to restrain his anger, "In another ten or twenty years, _you_ will be amongst those determining the prevalence of scum like those bandits within these lands. _Especially_ if Germania and Tristain do in fact unite, your two families handling of their rivalry will determine much."

"Alliance will be meaningless if the two realms hate each other," Louise admitted grudgingly, turning her gaze to her primary antagonist from the academy, "We're going to have to learn to be friends, Zerbst."

Kirche found herself smiling involuntarily at the Valliere's words.

"Oh, this will be so much _fun_," Kirche breathed, and Louise scowled at her.

((()))

"Is Jaeger an acceptable name for you?" Louise asked quietly, later that evening as she lay down in the tent that had been erected for her use.

"It will do," the cat replied as he curled up on a cushion set aside for him, "I've borne other names, but none of them quite suit this form."

"It seems strange to me," Louise said slowly, "To be so casual about one's name."

"Perhaps," Jaeger said quietly, flicking his tail in an odd emulation of a shrug, "But my given name was literally the most common in my native tongue, not even counting different variations upon it. I have always identified more as 'me,' than as 'my name.' Besides, some forms of magic can hold power over you if your true name is known."

"What is the native tongue of a shapeshifter?" Louise asked, curiously, and Jaeger laughed in response.

"I was born human," Jaeger replied, "And up until oh, four years ago, I still was. I have been subject to so many transformative magics since then, however, that I'm not sure I can remember them all."

A few moments of silence passed, as Louise chewed on that answer, before she ventured another question.

"How old are you?" She asked.

"Twenty-five," Jaeger replied, "Or thereabouts. I'm a _long_ way from home, and I'm not sure how many different calendar systems I've crossed since the last birthday I was able to accurately keep track of."

"It has been a long time since you have seen your home?" Louise asked.

"I haven't seen it since I first left," Jaeger said with a snort, "And honestly, I don't much miss it."

Louise offered no verbal response, just turning to stare quietly at Jaeger, some degree of shock clear in her eyes.

"Oh, don't get me wrong," Jaeger said, a hint of bitterness in his voice, "I do miss my family and friends _some_, my younger sisters in particular, but I wasn't really close to any of them. I was in outright conflict with my parents before I was summoned away, and my life wasn't exactly ideal in other aspects either."

"I'm sorry," Louise said, abashed, "I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."

"Oh, it wasn't _all_ bad," Jaeger said with a sigh, the bitterness fading to be replaced by a sort of resignation, "Lord knows other people have had it much worse, it's just that sometimes life takes a shit on you, and there's not much you can do about it. Like with your troubles regarding magic."

"...Being trapped in the form of an animal cannot be easy," Louise agreed, "How have you coped with it?"

"How did you cope with all of your magic turning awry on you?" Jaeger countered, and long seconds passed, broken only by the sounds of a travel-camp at night, before Louise replied.

"You endured," Louise replied, her voice aching with remembered pain, "And hoped for things to change one day."

"The intensity of the struggle may change," Jaeger said quietly, the fatigue in his words palpable to Louise, "But the nature does not. One can surrender hope and waste away, or fight to overcome."

Silence passed between them for long, long minutes, as Louise worked herself up to asking a question she honestly feared the answer to.

"I think I am feeling your emotions," She finally whispered quietly, her voice so low it was barely audible, even the Jaeger's feline ears, "Since the explosion at the bandit camp."

"I had a familiar of sorts of my own, once," Jaeger whispered faintly, "Now that I have begun to surpass the curse that constrains my magic, most likely the fractured bond has attached itself to you in a reciprocation of your own binding upon me."

Neither of them spoke further that night.

((()))

It took another three days of treatment and preparation before Princess Henrietta and the other healers declared the freed captives fit for travel. The guards had not been idle while the healers worked; a number of the musketeers had some training as craftswomen, and a number of improvised additions had been added to the baggage carts. Between the additions to the cart, slipping the young noblewoman and two other rescued women into the Princess' carriage, and several of the musketeers sharing their horses, the caravan was able to begin moving again without any significant loss of travel speed.

Things _were_ rather awkward within the carriage for a time however, the three women added to it clearly desperately uncomfortable in the Princess' presence, the noble girl visibly trying to fight tears of shame. Louise fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat; Siesta stared down at her lap sadly, and Henrietta was worn down between a mixture of exhaustion and guilt over what had happened to the women. Nearly half an hour passed before Jaeger abruptly joined them in the carriage, the faint scent of Pheasant about him betraying where he had been.

It took him all of three glances to realize what had happened, and another half a minute to decide on a course of action regarding the silent tension in the carriage. Jaeger left the carriage as quickly as he had come, and a few minutes later returned with Kirche and Tabitha in tow. The Zerbst was still clad in much more modest apparel than she habitually wore at the academy, but it did nothing to diminish her ebullient personality.

"Whatever are you all not talking about in here?" Kirche asked, a somewhat sinister grin twisting her lips, before jamming herself onto the bench seat beside Louise, nearly squishing the smaller Valliere in the process.

_That_ initiated a verbal engagement which _thoroughly_ broke the conversational ice in the carriage, and Kirche's fiery personality melted it the rest of the way.

((()))

As the journey into Germania continued, things began to _change._ The most immediately obvious to the caravan at large, was that as more and more distance was covered, the women rescued from the bandit camp became less and less desolate. Many tears were shed, there was no small number of furious outbursts from the women who had responded to their captivity with anger, but the sheer _numbness_ which had overtaken most of them began to fade.

Seven nights out of the next two weeks, it had become necessary to use magic to dampen sound around women who had woken up screaming, so that the rest of the camp could sleep.

The 'passengers' of the caravan also began to interact more easily with the Princess, noblewoman and commoner alike. It had taken some doing on her part to get them to refer to her with a simple 'milady' rather than 'your highness,' 'your majesty,' or other more elaborate titles, but taking turns riding on the carts, rather than in her own carriage, so that others could make use of it, made a substantial difference. Having been the most prolific healer treating them had made no small difference either.

One of the most pronounced changes was in Louise's relationship with Kirche, even if the change was only really noticeable to Tabitha and Jaeger, being the only members of the caravan that had seen them interact at the Academy. Their relationship continued to be adversarial, but it lacked any real _edge; _the conflict of those who, while irritated by each other, did not actually mean the other any harm. Their word-play was further dampened by the fact that as the journey continued, Louise's energy levels began to drop, and though it took some prodding for her to admit it, she was becoming increasingly sore, particularly around her joints.

At first, Henrietta was worried that Louise was taking sick (not an unlikely thing, given how much time she had spent around the rescued women and the way they had been kept), but a medical examination via water magic revealed that Louise had simply entered a rather abrupt (and _vigorous_) growth spurt, one which instigated a rather uncomfortable conversation with Jaeger.

((()))

"This is because of you, isn't it?" Louise asked pointedly.

"Yes and no," Jaeger replied quietly, "It would be more accurate to say it is because of our connection, or at least, I think it is."

The two of them had 'split off' from the caravan for the night, Louise taking a walk through the extensive forests surrounding the road,

"Why are you uncertain?" Louise asked, an edge of tension beginning to push into her voice.

"I am cursed," Jaeger replied flatly, "If I was not, I could easily use magic to instigate a growth spurt or similar effects in another's body. In particular, two of the forms of magic I wielded can cause such effects passively. As things stand, I _suspect _that the Familiar bond you have created with me has caused this magic to 'flow back' through the connection to you, but I cannot be _certain_."

Louise said nothing for a time, lost in thought (and nearly walking into a tree once), before she pulled together perhaps the most important question regarding the situation she found herself in.

"How will this change me?" Louise asked quietly.

"Until the curse is broken," Jaeger replied, "I cannot say for certain. What I can tell you, is that the general _theme_ of the changes, will be oriented towards making you more physically powerful, and able as a combatant."

"What else?" Louise asked insistently.

"...Honestly, that's pretty much it," Jaeger said slowly, "I am nothing if not a warrior, and while I know utility magics, few if any of them are of a sort to be used as a long term 'buff.' There is literally no _debilitating_ effect that should flow 'back' through the bond to you, the only differences I can think of that you would disapprove of would be cosmetic."

"Cosmetic how?" Louise asked, eyes narrowing slightly as she tried not to glare down at her familiar.

"Changed hair or eye color, changes to skin coloration, or possibly texture," Jaeger said with a shrug (an odd gesture for a cat to use), "Something that suits either the enhancement, or the character of our magic. Only time will tell what it would be, or if it happens at all."

"And the height?" Louise demanded.

"You're becoming more physically vital," Jaeger replied, "Your body is changing to reflect that. Let's set a scale of comparison, one which I have used before. Your average nobleman, say your classmate Guiche, could be said to have 'ten' strength. A nobleman such as your father, who clearly practices physical discipline, yet is primarily a magic user, would have twelve strength, while a craftsman whose trade demanded much strength, such as a Blacksmith, would have fifteen, or even sixteen strength. You, being of rather slight build, would have a nine strength, or possibly eight. Once my my magic has finished working on you, you will have something like fourteen or fifteen strength. Some of this strength will come in the form of more compact and efficient muscles, but as you know, it is far easier for a large man to be prodigiously strong, than it is for a small man."

"That makes sense, I suppose," Louise admitted with a hesitant nod, before glancing down at her small, slender form, "I cannot say I would be opposed to being gifted with a rather larger physique."

"It has its positives and negatives," Jaeger replied, shrugging again, "We will not know just how far the growth will extend until it stops."

A faint smile began to cross Louise's face, as she dreamed of looking _down_ at Kirche, rather than _up._

((()))

_By the time the convoy reached the Germanian capital, Valdeboda, Louise had grown two inches, and it was readily apparent that she would need new clothing, particularly as ill-fitting dresses would be incredibly gauche for formal diplomatic events. As only one member of their traveling company new anything about the city, that meant she had to go dress shopping with Kirche._

_Being male, I decided it was most certainly in my best interests to not get dragged into the expedition. I kept an eye on the girls of course (Siesta accompanying Louise as befitting her position), but I did so from outside the assorted stores they were visiting. Honestly, listening to Kirche and Louise bicker was getting a bit old as well, even if there was no longer the harsh edge to it there once had been._

_So I spent most of my attention on the Germanian people, who quite notably were _not_ the Germans of the Earth I was native to. Or even the assorted people groups that folded into Germany in the 1800's as it first formed; Like Kirche, they tended towards middle-eastern skin tones, though most had the brown or black hair one would expect of such ethnicities. Red hair to go with that coloration was apparently a Zerbst thing._

_More interesting to track, was the assorted groups of spies tracking Louise. First, there was Matilda/Longueville/Foquet, who was clearly too torn by indecision to actually _do _anything. As an actual woman going through tailors' shops looking at dresses, she was probably doing the best job at not being noticed, save I personally recognized her. Much more obvious, were the Germanian agents, of which there were three different groups._

_The largest (and most obvious) group of them, I was easily able to ascertain were working for the Emperor, and they were functionally nothing more than a 'discreet' security detail. The Emperor had nothing to gain from pissing off Henrietta, and the half-dozen agents actually seemed more worried about _Kirche_ than anything else. Apparently, her reputation as not just a wild card, but a _powerful_ wild card, has gotten around in Germania as well._

_The second group of Germanians were much more troublesome. They were extremely tight-lipped about anything of actual _use_ to me, and for all intents and purposes, appeared to be nothing more than a middle-aged noble couple out for a stroll in the market, with a pair of retainers accompanying them. The only reason I knew there was more to them than that at all, was because I had epic-level skill checks in Sense Motive and Perception in general. They were watching Louise, doing so under orders, and their 'porters' were actually mages as well. Given how much rarer mages were in Germania, I was placing my money on them being a strike team waiting for an opportune moment to act._

_The third and final group of Germanians took my suspicions about the second group, and confirmed their most likely motives. The third group was a bunch of street ruffians, mostly loitering in the alleys and being much more obvious (the Emperor's team was definitely keeping track of them); _they_ had much looser lips. From what I could gather, they were a budget version of the mage team, and they were employed by the Emperor's rivals with a simple objective: Disrupt the treaty negotiations by any means possible._

_Germania was a _far_ less unified nation than any of the others in Halkeginia, in part because the Romalian church was not as strong in Germania, and in part because they were not ruled by a direct descendant of Brimir. If the Emperor was able to marry into 'proper' royal blood, it would end the ducal competitions that currently resolved succession issues within Germania, and lock his line in as 'legitimate' rulers, crushing the ambitions of his political rivals. Given how long the ruling houses of Gallia, Tristain, and Albion had endured, I could understand the level of desperation this might drive the Dukes desiring to supplant the Emperor to._

_Derailment of attempted marriage arrangement was the obvious objective, but it was also fairly obvious that the various factions interested in such were either sporting vastly different levels of competence, or vastly different methodologies. The team of mages had little possible purpose aside from assassination, and they were professional enough that it was a legitimate concern, especially with my own abilities reduced as they were. Inferno Blast was about the only top-tier ability I had retained, and it was useless anywhere I couldn't just blast the shit out of everything. The team of street thugs, on the other hand, was either a desperation option, or there to ruin negotiations just by making an _attempt_ at kidnapping or assassination. Given that the vast majority of Henrietta's guard, including basically all of its mages, was (understandably) with the Princess rather than the shopping expedition, I was actually worried._

_Kirche and Tabitha were both skilled combatants, and once Louise could actually get into things, her explosions were nothing to be sneered at either._

_I still felt... _vulnerable_ though. I didn't like that feeling._

((()))

"_Kirche_," Louise said with considerable aggravation, "Just because it is the color of my _hair_, does not mean that _all_ of my dresses need to be _pink._"

"But it suits you so well," Kirche practically cooed as she looked up and down the dress Louise was wearing, "And there are so few other colors that your particular shade of pink fits well with. It clashes horribly with black, most shades of blue are out, green would be horrible, and white is so _plain-_"

"I happen to think white is a perfectly acceptable compliment to my complexion and coloration," Louise retorted as she tugged at the bodice of the dress, trying to convince herself that she wasn't _still_ growing so fast that whatever she purchased would not fit properly in another week.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a group of common ruffians bursting into the front of the store, shouting threats and brandishing knives. Acting purely on instinct, Louise went for her wand, almost immediately realizing that, unfortunately, while it was secreted in the sleeve of her dress (as per usual), she was not wearing _her_ dress.

Kirche and Tabitha, on the other hand, _were_ both wearing their own clothing, and two triangle-class mages were more than capable of dealing with a bunch of poorly-armed thugs. The storefront, on the other hand, was _not_ capable of dealing with a pair of triangle-class mages letting loose.

((()))

_Stone and wood exploded outwards as the entire front wall of the dressmaker's store was shattered by synergistic magics. Fire and Wind feed off of each other very well, something I was quite well aware of myself; my bet was that Kirche and Tabitha were a bit _enthusiastic_ about dealing with the thugs. Unfortunately, _every_ other team in the area took it as their key to move, and the Emperor hadn't bothered to inform Louise's party that they had been given a team of shadow-escorts. Not to mention the fact that a number of people on the street had been injured by the blast, though thankfully it was small enough that I wasn't seeing any fatalities._

_Yet._

_It was time for me to move in, and see if my understanding of surpassing the curse was correct._

((()))

"Who sent you?" Kirche demanded, no hint of her playful personality remaining as she seized one of the (mutilated) surviving thugs up by his collar, brandishing her smoking wand beneath his nose, "_Who?_"

The man gurgled up blood, and attempted to spit in her face; a thin barrier of wind magic prevented the glob from landing. Scowling, Kirche dropped the man, then kicked him away, displaying far more strength of leg than Louise would ever have expected. For that matter, she'd not have expected the Germanian to have enough strength of _arm_ to lift the man one-handed in the first place.

"More coming," Tabitha half-whispered, gesturing out towards the dissipating cloud of smoke in the street as Kirche picked up a second survivor, "Better equipped and trained."

"Tch," Kirche snorted, "We'll have to ask _them._"

Then she threw the second man aside, none to gently, and conjured a wall of fire in front of herself, sealing off the demolished store-front; Tabitha backed the barrier with one of her own. With a level of coordination borne of long practice, the two began 'walking' their barrier outwards, shaping it into a curve as they did so.

"Everybody out," Kirche said firmly, gesturing for the shopkeeper and his attendants to follow them out into the bubble-shield, "This is going to get ugly before it gets worse, and if anyone stays here they'll be in trouble. Louise, have you trained for casting through shield-holes?"

Louise shook her head.

"Damn," Kirche said, "Then we'll have to-"

She was cut off by an explosion of fire from the street, one which nearly buckled her own fire shield.

"Mages," Tabitha said curtly, "Four, line-level or better."

Kirche swore, and did _something_ with her wand that forced the flames to near-transparency, revealing an out-and-out brawl on the street, a melee between thugs, what looked like common peasants, and a noble couple's entourage.

Kirche was forced to re-evaluate that when a tall, scarred man wearing only a pair of breeches and an eye-patch appeared amidst the brawl in a flicker of shadow and flame, lashing out with fire-wreathed fists. Kirche winced slightly as flesh sizzled and men screamed, a flurry of blows moving faster than her eyes could follow laying out fully half of the combatants in a handful of seconds. Seeing their compatriots so roundly defeated, the surviving thugs turned and attempted to run; the newcomer, flames receding from his fists to wrap around his body in its entirety, simply watched as the 'peasants' ran them down and captured or killed them.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, the flight and pursuit cleared the street in front of the damaged dressmaker's store, and the team of mages decided to act while they had clear lines of fire. Two bolts of ice and a stream of high-pressure water lashed out towards Kirche and Tabitha's combined barrier; Kirche's flames were doused, but a twist of the wrist from Tabitha initiated a 'spin' to her wall of wind, deflecting the ice before it could penetrate. The fourth mage, conjuring a quartet of stone golems, advanced on the man with the eyepatch, eying his wreath of flames warily.

"Smart move," The man said in a voice that Louise immediately recognized, calmly waiting for the golems to reach him, "But it won't be enough."

((()))

'Foquet' watched the engagement in the street from behind the chimney of a bakery; she had expected some sort of fracas, but nothing so large and so _soon_; she hadn't even had the time to start _looking_ for local mercenaries, much less actually recruit any. And watching what the Zerbst and her little blue-haired friend made of the three mages attacking them, _without_ the dragon or the salamander to back them up, made her _quite_ wary of trying to take them on alone.

Oh, certainly, if she used her largest size of golems, fire and wind would do little to nothing against it, but it would also bring the full force of the Germanian royal guard down on her, and _that_ was a battle she knew she could not win; watching the man she suspected was somehow the Valliere's familiar put his fist (which was on fire) through one of the golem's _chest_, she didn't much like her chances on taking the Valliere's _current_ group of bodyguards.

Or friends. Matilda had had friends like that once; none of them had survived to escape Albion.

Groaning in frustration at the re-emergence of a formerly-suppressed memory, 'Foquet' leaned back, retreating behind the chimney, and found to her irritation, that the cloaked and masked form of Viscount Wardes had joined her on the roof, without her even noticing.

_Damn noise-suppression spells_, she thought caustically.

"Why aren't you attacking?" Wardes demanded bluntly.

"Because the city watch are doubtless already halfway here, possibly with the Royal Guards in tow," Foquet snapped back at him, "And I don't have any supporting forces to distract them. The caravan arrived here _last night._ They haven't even 'formally arrived' and met with the Emperor yet; whoever put this into motion is both desperate and foolishly impatient, two things I am not."

"You _should_ be," Wardes growled, none of the charming Gryphon Knight he had shown before visible any longer, "I've met with the leader of the Emperor's guard, and they are both more numerous and more competent than I expected. If you don't act now, you _won't_ get another opportunity, and that would be _very bad_ for your siste-"

Foquet's patience snapped, and she went for her wand.

((()))

The fight in the street ended as abruptly as it had begun, cut short by a source none had expected, and few had even suspected _capable_ of such a thing. It was the first time a Void spell had been cast in Germania in living memory (possibly ever), and the effect it had on the myriad of interplaying barrier and attack spells was nothing short of catastrophic, shredding every bit of arcane energy in active use on the street.

Observant eyes noticed that it did _not_ extinguish the flames of the scarred man, though it did blow off his eye-patch, revealing the empty eye-socket beneath.

"I don't suppose I could talk you into hitting me with one of those?" He asked, turning to look at Louise directly, "Do you even recognize me when I stand up straight, and without all the extra hair?"

Any reply Louise might have given was cut off by a fifty foot golem emerging from the next street over, accompanied by a roar of feminine rage.

"Foquet," Tabitha said sharply, a vague scowl crossing her face as she lobbed a shrieking vortex of wind into the sky, "Careful, she is better than me."

Those amongst the team of magi assassins still capable of doing so attempted to take the opportunity to renew their attack as Tabitha cast her spell; an intense wave of flame intercepted their barrage of spells. In their haste to retake the offensive, they failed to refresh their own defensive spells, and the scarred man was amongst them before they realized the full scale of their mistake, removing any opportunity they may have had to remedy it.

Like most nobility, once their magical protections were removed, the proved quite vulnerable to the 'fist to the face' technique. The dueling pair of mages who moved over from the next street, were _much_ less fragile, not to mention harder to hit. Or harder to hit _effectively_; one cloaked and masked figure was riding a flight spell, the other was riding within an immense earthen golem, both of them hurling spells at the other.

The Air mage was nimble, and the stones hurled were slow; The lightning flung in return was a powerful example of Square-class magic, but it was difficult to deal much damage to stone with Lightning. The battle was little more than a stalemate, dealing little damage to the two combatants, but plenty to the city around them, and attracting even more attention than the initial fight had. Golems twice the height of any building around them tended to accomplish that.

"Jaeger," Louise called sharply, "Can you end this?"

"Yes," He said flatly, before turning and sprinting towards the golem.

More than thirty feet tall, locked in combat with a flying mage, the stone construct was far from 'stable,' but Jaeger climbed it more swiftly than most healthy men could stairs, hands dancing across rocky protrusions, feet almost slithering upwards, until he stood atop the head.

"OI YOU!" Jaeger bellowed, shifting slightly to maintain his balance as the golem lurched beneath him, "UP IN THE SKY! GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW!"

"If you insist," The wind mage replied, before diving towards the scarred man, sword-wand leading.

"Be that way then," Jaeger shrugged, turning the shrug into a twist of his shoulders that tilted him out of the way as his masked assailant swept by, seizing the man's shoulders and re-directing his dive to slam him into the golem's shoulder.

"You don't charge the Swordsage," Jaeger said with a dismissive snort, before hopping down after the man.

The wind mage, however, had already recovered from his forceful impact with the construct's torso, rolling to his feet and evading Jaeger's drop kick with a single smooth motion, before retaliating with a flurry of strikes of his own. The first two caught Jaeger by surprise, and he was unable to fully dodge, catching to slashes along his flanks for his trouble. The flames roiling around the shapeshifting familiar leapt out in retaliation, sliding back up the blade even as it shed Jaeger's blood, scorching the spellsword's arm.

Jaeger deflected the third blow with his bare hand, and the mage withdrew his offense before the flames could further trouble him. The burning familiar moved into a searing offense of his own, but discovered, to his considerable surprise, that his opponent was in fact, swift enough to evade or parry his fiery blows.

"You're better than I expected," Jaeger admitted as he shifted backwards, analyzing his foe in more detail, "Most-"

The wind mage left little time for speech, and pressed a refreshed attack of his own, this time lashing out with an orb of electricity, rather than his blade. The orb of lightning was evaded, and struck the neck of the golem instead, causing it to stagger slightly as the current washed through the construct and lent some of its charge to the mage within controlling it.

Jaeger responded with an attempt at grappling, but the wind mage, understandably wary of close combat with a man who was _on fire_, leapt from the golem's back, and took to the air again, nearly eating a bolt of ice from Tabitha in the process. Lightning lashed at the tiny girl in retaliation, but she already had a shield of air protecting herself and Kirche, and any further attempts he might have made on her life were interrupted by Jaeger rocketing up into the air after him, riding a cone of flame cresting at his fist.

The wind mage rolled around the attack, his cloak scarcely singed by the flames, and hurled a bolt of lightning in return.

Jaeger twisted in midair as his propulsion abruptly cut out, neatly evading the blast, before attempting a spinning kick as he fell back past his foe; again accomplishing nothing.

Wind blades, dodged.

A leap attack from the roof of a nearby building, evaded.

A pressure blast of air, avoided by use of Foquet's golem as cover.

A hurled stone, contemptuously deflected via a shield of air.

Making use of Foquet's golem for cover from the trio of student-mages on the ground, the wind mage ascended up and away, buying time to cast a series of spells, none of which had any immediately visible effect. When he returned to ground level to re-engage, however, the purpose behind his actions became readily apparent.

His blade touched Jaeger again, but this time, the flames surrounding the scarred man's body were worded away by sharp currents of air, nullifying the one successful means of injuring the mage he had demonstrated thus far. Jaeger was forced on the defense; he moved with consummate skill, dodging, ducking, even deflecting his foe's darting blade with his bare hands, but there was a _reason_ swords were used over bare hands, and bloody slashes began to accumulate along his already-scarred flesh.

Not that Jaeger made it _easy_ for his foe to injury him; it took a full minute of furious swordplay for the man to land just five glancing blows on him, at which point Jaeger chose to change the nature of the fight. In what was nearly the blink of an eye, Jaeger's form contracted into a mote of shadow, and disappeared from sight. His foe quickly swept his eyes around the area, catching sight of Jaeger just in time to catch a flying mercenary to the face.

Unconscious mercenaries, especially one wearing nothing more solid than leather, did little in the way of damage, but it almost knocked the mage off his feet, and he took to the air in order to avoid another strike, flying a full fifty feet straight up.

Jaeger hefted another thug, wreathed the unconscious body in flame, then spun around, arms out to hold his improvised weapon at maximum extension, and hurled up at the Wind mage, striking the man dead-on.

"The _hell?_" The mage burst out, before retreating another fifty feet upwards, "You're throwing _people_ at me?!"

"A wise warrior uses whatever weapons he finds at hand," Jaeger replied with a shrug, before hefting another body, and beginning to spin again.

A trio of arcing rays of lightning leapt down before he could complete his throw however, and one of them struck; the instant the electrical energy made contact with his body, Jaeger disappeared in a blast of fire, dropping the body as he did so.

"_Bad move,_" The shapeshifter whispered from directly behind the Wind Mage's ear, hot breath ascending rapidly to searing heat, as the flames around Jaeger _pulsed._

The man turned just fast enough to see a hellish glow emanating from Jaeger's empty eye socket, before his world was drowned in flame.

((()))

"Princess!" Agnes half-shouted as she burst into Henrietta's guest suite at the Imperial Palace, "There's been an attack on Lady Valliere's party within the city!"

"Send Captain Wardes to assist them at once!" Henrietta responded promptly.

"Wardes is missing," Agnes growled, "Or I would have had him out already. I think he may be the agent we've been looking for."

"_Wardes?_" Henrietta gasped, face paling as she began working through the ramifications of the man's possible treachery, her feet already carrying her towards the door, "We must move _immediately._"

((()))

"_Wardes?_" Louise gasped as a mirror-image of the mage Jaeger had just immolated in fire appeared directly behind the Valliere, and seized her around the waist.

((()))

_Something was wrong; there was no body. By scent, I was certain that I had been fighting Wardes, but there was _no body._ Inferno Blast is hellishly damaging, but not enough so to _atomize_ the warded body of a human being. Something was wrong, and I _knew_ that somewhere in my mind lay the information as to what, but it lay in one of the portions of my memory that I hadn't been able to sort out yet._

_What was it?_

((()))

Three spells went off in rapidy succession; an air-hammer, a flame-whip, then a second air-hammer. None of the (few) commoners watching the engagement saw what happened, their eyes still half-blinded by the massive fireball that was only just fading from the sky; the royal guards arrived half a minute to late to witness what had happened.

When they _did_ arrive, they found a distraught Zerbst standing guard over the body of a tiny blunette who was suffering from one pulverized arm, the other missing in its entirety, while a cat used a flaming paw to sear the severed shoulder shut. Of Louise Valliere, there was no sign.

((()))

AN: ERMAHGERSH! ...So much drama in real life. Really puts a damper on the whole 'writing' thing. Still, this chapter is finally done, and it's pretty long too.

Hopefully, as drama in my life is (currently at least) being resolved, writing production will become more regular again.


	11. Dungeon Crawler in Halkegenia pt 5

AN: This has some experimental style/content elements to it. We'll see how they work out.

((()))

Tabitha lay panting, strapped into the saddle, her eyes closed, but her attention not wavering in the slightest. Matilda was more than a little impressed by the younger woman's sheer bloody-minded determination, and hoped that she _never_ had reason to fight the Gallian royal. Down one arm, the stump barely healed closed, the other in a sling, and pale from blood loss, and Charlotte de Orleans still managed a triangle-class Wind spell to hasten her familiar's flight.

The girl was only _slightly_ less terrifying than the one-eyed cat staring at her from atop the Wind Dragon's head, as it exchanged words with the creature in a language Matilda had never heard before. Foquet had faced powerful mages before; Longueville had met Karin Valliere, the legendary Heavy Wind, and seen the woman's iron will first hand, and she was no slouch of a mage herself. Matilda had even dealt with some degree of Elven magic, though not in a threatening way; she had thought she understood quite well just what magic was and was not capable of.

The one-eyed familiar, apparently a shapeshifter rather than a cat, had proven her wrong. And one thing Foquet had learned _very early_ in her career as a thief, was that the only thing more dangerous than a lack of information, was _misinformation._ And what she had thought she knew about the familiar had been proven wrong on essentially every conceivable level. It wasn't a cat, it wasn't crippled, and it wasn't helpless; the only thing her initial information _had_ been correct about, was it being Louise Valliere's familiar.

And it had just finished talking to the Dragon, moving down the larger creature's swaying neck with a casual grace, one entirely appropriate to its feline form.

"I know of three names you have," Jaeger said as he approached her, "Which are you most comfortable being addressed by?"

Matilda tensed as she warily eyed the creature, thinking carefully before responding.

"Longueville will do for now," She said carefully as the cat seated itself beside Tabitha's quiet form, "What do you want of me?"

"To know where Wardes will be going," Jaeger said, "There are many paths he may take to Albion, but we both know that once he arrives thereabouts, Reconquista will seek its revenge upon your family."

"Why would he not stop at the Vallieres?" Longueville countered, "He could easily spin a tale for them, to turn them against us."

"He could try," Jaeger replied flatly, his single eye casting her a sarcastic look, something Longueville had never received from a cat before, "The Duke and Duchess would see right through his lies, and whoop his traitorous ass. He may be overconfident enough to think he can take on one of them, but I doubt he is fool enough to try to defeat both, much less their retainers and armsmen. He's aligned with Reconquista, and the only territory they actually _control_ right now, is in Albion."

Longueville gave no response for some time; she wasn't entirely sure what to say.

"Wardes will probably be moving for my family's old lands, to punish those who remain for my refusal of him," She eventually said, "I don't know if he would have your mistress with him."

The cat's eye narrowed, and the rune on his forehead flared briefly; Longueville had the distinct impression that she'd barely avoided seeing him snarl.

"You think I am coming because I am the girl's _familiar?_" Jaeger demanded harshly, glaring up at Longueville.

"Why else would a Firstborn-" Longueville was cut off as the cat _did_ snarl, its forelegs twitching as claws extended, then retracted.

"I am no 'Firstborn,' of this world," Jaeger snarled, leaning forward, teeth bared, "And it is more than a _compulsion_ derived of an omnicidal megalomaniac's magic that drives and motivates my actions."

The cat veritably _trembled _with pent up emotion as it stalked a few steps closer to Foquet (who was instinctively grasping her wand), nearly standing on the woman.

"Tell me, _Longueville_," Jaeger growled, "What motivates your actions? Revenge? Care for your sister? Bitterness? Envy?"

Matilda said nothing, simply glaring at the cat in front of her, and considering her odds of surviving a point-blank engagement with the creature when over a thousand feet from the ground.

"Yes," Jaeger pressed on after several seconds of silence had passed, leaning further and further into Matilda's personal space as he spoke, "I can _feel_ the runes she _branded onto my skull_ tugging at my mind, urging me to save her, urging me to protect her when she is in distress, but you know what?"

"_What?_" Foquet snapped, trying to shove the cat back away from herself as she raised her wand.

"_**I would have gone to save her anyways,**_" Jaeger growled as he swayed around Foquet's hand, something larger than his physical form resonating within his voice as he spoke, "_**Just like I will stand against Wardes and Reconquista to protect your sister and those she cares for.**_"

"You're an _idealist?_" Foquet snarled, her voice wrought with bitter and jaded anger, "What kind of sheltered life have _you_ lead?"

The moment that the cat's empty eye socket snapped open, Matilda knew that she'd crossed a line; the cat's form swelling, twisting, contorting, and morphing into that of a large, scarred man almost pushed her to cast a spell that would have meant _bad things_ for all of them so high in the air.

"**LOOK AT ME!**" Jaeger roared, pointing first to his missing eye, then the scars across his chest, "**DO I **_**LOOK**_** LIKE I'VE LIVED A SHELTERED LIFE?"**

As a cat, Jaeger's fur looked patchy; as a human, the scars that had destroyed the consistency of his fur stood out as vivid trenches and lines across his body. Anger and pride warred with self-preservation in Foquet's mind as she studied his damaged body; practicality eventually won out, and she shook her head.

"**I have not seen my home in **_**six years**_**," **Jaeger growled, visibly restraining his anger, "**You have a sister you care deeply about; I have **_**three.**_** I have been homeless, I have **_**starved**_**, I have fought, I have bled, I have nearly died more times than I can count, I have had my mind **_**violated**_** by those who consider themselves above 'petty' things like morality."**

Jaeger stepped back out of Matilda's personal space, still balancing with _damnable_ ease on the flying Dragon, before turning away and screaming into the sky.

"**I HAVE **_**NOT**_** LIVED A **_**SHELTERED LIFE!**_"

Tension slowly began to ease out of Longueville as she watched the man's scarred back heave with emotion; he was breathing so hard that it was audible even over Sylphid's wingbeats. Eventually, he turned to face her again, and though the anger had largely passed, there was still a furious intensity to his gaze that Matilda found unsettling.

"Just because life takes a shit on me," Jaeger said with precise, forceful enunciation, his single eye glowing with raw intensity, "Does _not_ mean that I get to take a shit on someone else. True Love is _sacrificial._ True Love is _unconditional._ I only know a little of the kind of 'god' most people believe in in this land, but let me tell you something about the God that _I _follow."

Jaeger leaned into Matilda's personal space again, though this time it was not a threat he carried with him, but a sense of purpose, a clear intention to deliver a message to her.

"_My_ God," Jaeger declared forcefully, "Showed His Love by _dying_, then rising again and _living_ for us. He was executed like a common _criminal_, in spite of being innocent of any wrongdoing, because his moral teaching threatened those in power. Life took the biggest shit ever on _Him_, and _He _responded in Love.

"In the last six years, I have been ripped from my homeworld by a group of thugs intent on dominating and corrupting a city. I've fought Werewolves, undead, petty bigots, master wizards, genocidal racists, and maids who _stop time to clean._ I've been stabbed, shot, impaled, flayed, mind-ripped, put under compulsions, banished, and cursed to lose my power, my ability to think clearly, and even my very body."

Jaeger leaned back and sat down, placing himself just forward of Tabitha's prone form.

"But _He_ had it worse, and yet He Loved even those who killed Him. I will never achieve as much as He did, will never be as perfect as He was and is, but having encountered the kind of Love He shows, I am driven to show it to others. At the Academy, that meant giving Louise someone to speak to, confide in, someone to cuddle with for comfort. Now, it means saving her from a traitor, saving your sister from the same, and if I have the strength, tearing down Reconquista as we go."

No more words passed between them during that leg of their journey, though Tabitha and Foquet both spent more than a little time staring at the changeling.

((()))

The trio of Dragon-borne humans reached the Valliere estates in less than a day; both Tabitha and her familiar effectively collapsed upon landing, leaving a 'secretary' and a cat to deal with the Duke and Duchess.

"Wardes a traitor, my daughter kidnapped in an attempt to derail the pending alliance with Germania, and the both of them heading towards Albion and the Reconquista," Karin summarized flatly, "Precisely why am I supposed to believe such a tale from a Zerbst? Do keep in mind that my husband and I selected Wardes to be our daughter's _fiance_. Why on _earth_ would he kidnap his betrothed?"

"Because Reconquista wants a Void Mage," Jaeger said harshly, startling the ducal couple slightly, "Cromwell is backed by Gallia's Void Mage and Familiar right now, but he wants to control one of his own, so he will no longer be beholden to them. You _know_ how much political capital your daughter represents."

"While that is likely," The Duke retorted, staring down at the one-eyed cat, "That is hardly reason to believe that Wardes has turned traitor."

Jaeger leapt to the ground from Longueville's shoulder, his body _shifting_ as he moved, and by the time he reached the ground, a scarred man clad only in breeches had taken the cat's place, staring first the Duke, then the Duchess, in the eyes.

"I can offer only this," He said grimly, "Take your own measure of me, look me in the eye and see if I speak Truth or Lie, then make your decision. I will be going to Albion with or without your aid."

For a long minute, man and wife stared Jaeger in the eye, before exchanging a single, meaningful glance.

"Turn back into the cat," Karin snapped out, "We need to move swiftly, and every bit less weight astride my steed will aid our travel."

((()))

The second leg of the trip was particularly hard on Matilda; she was in fairly good shape, but riding in a saddle for more than a day straight was almost brutal. For Jaeger, it was little burden; a cat can sleep almost anywhere, and he did.

And in his sleep, he _dreamed_.

((()))

"_John."_

_Nobody had called me by that name in months; when I turned to see who had done so, a visceral fear for my life struck me for the first time in _years. _It was not a human, nor an elf, nor any other sentient creature I had encountered before which spoke to me, but a being beyond anything I had encountered before, even the Prismatic Dragon. It took the form of what I vaguely recognized as a Celestial from D&D, but even in a dream (or perhaps _because_ it was a dream I was within), I could sense that only a small portion of what it was protruded into realms I was capable of sensing._

_I could also recognize, on an instinctive level, by Whom it had been sent, and awkwardly offered a respectful bow. Not one of subservience, because though we served the same Lord, this being was not my master._

"_**John, journeyman of worlds,**__" The angel said, its voice deep, resonating within my very being, "__**The Lord your God has sent me with a message for you: 'Be strong and Courageous, do not be terrified. Though your foes may seem mighty, the Lord your God will be with you, and He will give you the strength to defeat your foes. Though the battle may seem bleak, do not flee, do not attempt to disengage, confront your enemy directly, do not yield, and fight until she flees before you! The Lord has carried you this far, and He will give you victory in this land as you have not yet had in any other.**__"_

_I opened my mouth to ask a question, but the angel was already gone._

((()))

"Are you in love with Osmond?" Karin asked bluntly.

Matilda's jaw literally fell open with shock.

"You're a mage," Karin said, not bothering to turn back and face the younger woman seated behind her, "Earth, Line or better, but you willingly worked a position more appropriate to a literate commoner, and Osmond's womanizing tendencies are well known. I see little other reason for you to accept working as his secretary, especially since you apparently have no problem traveling to Germania. You could easily earn enough to buy yourself a title there. Simply swearing fealty directly to the Emperor might be enough for a mage of your skill to be landed."

"_No!_" Matilda half-shouted, "It was just that the job was easy to get because he's a damn letcher!"

"Then why?" Karin demanded.

"Why do you care?" Matilda asked defensively, "My personal life is hardly of import to the second-ranking noble in Tristain."

"It _is_ important," Karin retorted sharply, "In the next few days, I will go into battle, and if you are to be at my side, I fully intend to know who you are, and why you are involved with this," Karin paused a moment, and turned in her saddle to look Longueville dead in the eye, "And do _not_ try lying to me."

Silence stretched out between them after the Valliere's command; seconds, then minutes, nearly ten before Matilda finally decided what to say.

"I have a sister in Albion," She admitted reluctantly, "Germania is too far for me to be able to see her. How did you know I am a mage?"

"The first time you came to our estates, you played your role well," Karin replied, "When you arrived today, you were too tired to hide your stance, or the wand strapped to your left thigh. A sister in Albion isn't reason enough; you could move her to Germania almost as easily as you could travel there yourself. Why didn't you?"

"She's a half-sister," Matilda said grumpily, rubbing her tired eyes with a sigh, "If her heritage became known, she'd either be killed, or become a political pawn. And she runs an orphanage near Saxe-Gotha; I could have smuggled her away to somewhere safe, but she wouldn't leave without the children, and I can't hide thirty children from Albion in Germania. She's not very good at being discrete either."

"A royal bastard then?" Karin asked, turning in her saddle again to level an expectant gaze at Longueville.

"Yes," Matilda admitted reluctantly, "Reconquista is just making it all worse. If I had tried to move her once the rebellion was in full swing, we never would have gotten out without notice. They found out about her somehow anyways, and Wardes threatened to kill her if I didn't do what he wanted. Jaeger," Matilda nodded to the cat between them, "Thinks that Tiffa's orphanage is the best place to intercept Wardes, and take your daughter back from him."

"I see," Karin said, nodding slowly, and turning forward in her saddle again.

Silence passed for most of an hour, and Matilda thought that Duchess Valliere was satisfied with her answers; she would have slept if it was an option, but Karin's Manticore was much smaller than Tabitha's Dragon had been. The Duchess' next words, however, shocked her to full consciousness nigh-instantly.

"You are Matilda de Saschen-Gotha," Karin announced, turning to face Matilda again, "Daughter of the Archduke of Albion; you were thought killed with the rest of his family."

"_How did you know that?"_ Matilda hissed, instinctively seizing her wand.

"My husband and I do our best to keep up with the politics of our neighbours," Karin said primly, ignoring Foquet's wand, "Your father's assassination was the scandal of the decade. We never did find out what spurred it, but I must admit to being impressed that you have successfully remained hidden for so long."

Matilda said nothing, simply glaring spite at Karin as her hand flexed spasmodically over her wand.

"There is more you have yet to tell me," Karin continued evenly, turning to face forward again, "You may as well be forthright with it, as I will doubtless know before this venture is through."

"Tiffania is my _half_-sister," Matilda ground out, anger and bitterness making her impetuous with her words, "And she is also half_-elf._ This is why our father was murdered."

Karin had no ready response to that, and the rest of their journey passed in silence.

((()))

_Karin's familiar carried us to La Rochelle; it was apparently used to long flights, as it was fatigued rather than exhausted by the trip. I have rarely, if ever seen a woman project so much raw intimidation with her mere presence, and the Duchess Valliere put it to good use commandeering an airship to take us up to Albion. The ship wasn't as fast as simply flying would have been, even with the sheer amount of vertical gain involved._

_It was a soldier's move though; it took ten hours to reach Albion aboard ship, more than long enough for all of us, including Karin's familiar, to be well-rested by the time we arrived there, and mount back up for the final leg of the journey. I dearly would have preferred teleportation, or shapechanging into something with absurd speed, but given the limitations we were under, we made impressive time. Two days from Valdeboda to Saxe-Gotha._

((()))

"This is almost anti-climactic," Jaeger said a bit whimsically as they approached a _very_ small clearing, the closest landing point to Tiffania's orphanage in the dense forest, "We actually beat Wardes here."

"Don't sound so disappointed," Karin snapped as they touched down, "A defensive position in rough terrain is in all way superior to attacking into an unknown fortification. Matilda, do you have any experience in shaping breastworks and traps?"

"Yes," Matilda said flatly as she dismounted, "But I must speak with Tiffania before we do _anything_ else. She's terrified of strangers."

((()))

_In the end, we had roughly eighteen hours between our arrival, and Reconquista reaching the orphanage. There was some sort of tension I didn't understand between Karin and Matilda, though given the Duchess' lack of surprise at Tiffania's half-elven nature, it was likely related to her somehow. Said tension didn't keep Karin from running Matilda nearly into the ground, fortifying the area around the Orphanage, and augmenting the earthen traps with some rather vicious elements of her own._

_I doubted the Reconquista would expect an Earth and Wind mage team to use _poisoned_ traps. Even Water Mages rarely bothered with such things, and I had heard literally not a single mention of any other element of magii attempting it._

_It turned out to be a wise move on Karin's part, as when Reconquista _did _arrive, they brought five hundred men with them, to search the forest. Apparently, Wardes had implied they knew more about Tiffania's location than they actually did._

_Unfortunately for Reconquista, a forest was nigh-ideal hunting grounds for myself._

((()))

A team of ten soldiers, led by a dot Wind mage, were holding position as the extreme end of one of the search 'arms' combing the forest. That they were at the end of that arm was the only reason they had a mage amongst their number, even just a dot; the civil war had hit the nobility harder than war usually did, as it was ultimately a power struggle between the nobility and the royalty, and combat-capable mages were in short supply.

The flanking squad had been more than happy to hear they were being assigned a mage to strengthen their position; they were more than sad when a small, shadowed shape dropped out of the trees overhead and decapitated the Earth mage.

"Now would be the time you start _running_," A furious voice snarled as a wreath of flames wrapped itself around a one-eyed cat.

The soldiers did as they were told; half of them even survived to reach the next squadron in..

((()))

"Where in blazes has that cat gone?" Karin asked, her voice leaking tightly-leashed anger, "I've need of a scout."

"He's not a scout," Matilda replied sharply, "Did we never tell you of the full extent of his abilities with fire?"

Karin shook her head; Matilda told her.

((()))

One of the five archers in the squad of fifteen loosed an arrow at the flicker of movement he saw deeper in the forest, then flinched as a burst of flame erupted from where the arrow struck. A whirlwind of heat, screams, and hot blood washed across his back an instant later, and the man dove forward. Rolling to his feet, he turned and rose just in time to see a flame-wreathed cat finish butchering the rest of his team.

"_Run_," The one-eyed creature hissed at him; the archer obeyed.

((()))

"Report," Wardes ordered as a commoner Lieutenant half-dragged a trembling bowman into his presence.

"M-my Lord," The archer replied, "A c-creature of flame and shadow in the form of a cat, it cut down my entire squad, leaving only myself alive."

"How did you survive?" Wardes demanded.

"I-I don't-" The Archer cut himself off and abruptly stilled, panic washing away to be replaced by sudden realization, "It deliberately chose to allow me to survive and return, sir," The man said, his voice still weak, but steady, "I believe it is trying to demoralize the men."

Wardes swore.

((()))

Karin swore, cursing her lack of meaningful battlefield intelligence. The forest was dense, the canopy was even denser, and if she took to the skies, she'd simply mark herself (and wherever she'd taken flight from) as a target. Matilda had some limited potential as a scouting asset, moving through the earth via her magic, but that would leave Karin as the only primary combatant serving at the fortified orphanage, and that was more dangerous than not knowing when the enemy would arrive.

Her thoughts were cut off by a black cat almost materializing out of the shadows in front of her.

"Roughly four hundred and fifty Reconquista soldiers, including at least a dozen dot and Line mages, are moving up through the forest," Jaeger reported, "I've cut up their flanks, killing six mages and forty soldiers. I'm fairly certain Wardes is present."

"Is he in command of this assault?" Karin demanded.

"I don't know," Jaeger said, shaking his head, "Do you want me to find out?"

Karin nodded, opening her mouth to speak, but Jaeger was already gone again.

((()))

_Drawing out someone like Wardes was easy; the man had an ego, and all I needed to do was poke it. Given that the enemy lines had grouped up a fair bit in response to my raids along their flanks, the 'big boom' strategy would be fairly effective, though if their commander was at all competent, they would disperse again, and the one shot would be the best I'd get._

_I was more than alright with that; I'd prefer to keep the casualty count as low as I reasonably could._

((()))

A streak of fire sliced through the Reconquista command group; Wardes, swift beyond merely human capability, lunged to the side, evading the bolt of flaming cat. Leaping back to his feet, he swore as he spat out a mouthful of dirt, but the feline was already gone.

Two of his men had died in the attack as well.

((()))

"Wardes is in command," Jaeger growled, "And he's too damn fast for me to hit while my curse remains."

"I can deal with Wardes," Karin said flatly, "He is a powerful Wind Mage, but there is a reason I have a reputation through Halkeginia, and he does not. Can you and Matilda deal with the rest of the army?"

"Easily," Jaeger said, flicking his tail before dashing off to where Matilda was speaking with her half-sister.

((()))

"But why are they coming _here?_" The tall, generously proportioned blonde asked her green-haired elder sibling.

"_Why_ doesn't matter so much as the fact that they _are_," Longueville said, her voice taut with strained patience, "And they'll either kill or kidnap everyone he-"

"It's time to fight," Jaeger cut in, startling both of them with his sudden appearance almost on top of them, slinking out of the shadows along the wall of Tiffania's forest refuge, "Tiffania, you should take the children inside. Matilda, I'll be going on the offense, and would request that you play close defense to 'catch' any who slip past me. Karin will be sallying to deal with Wardes and his guard."

"Wardes is _here?_" Matilda asked sharply, "Are there any other high-rank mages present?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Jaeger said with a shrug, "I can handle anything less than Triangle easily, and most triangles I should be able to handle as well. You've seen what I can do."

"I have," Matilda said, nodding grimly as she drew her wand, "Keep them away from my sister, cat."

"I'll do what I can."

((()))

No forest is ever _wholly_ silent, though some come close from time to time. The forest outside of Saxe-Gotha was not particularly silent that evening; a small army marching through it drove the wildlife into hiding, but did more than enough to make up for the lack of sound from the natives.

A compact but intense tornado erupted from a particularly dense stand of trees, shredding leaves, branches, and trunks with raw force, then abrading everything that fell within it due to particulate matter caught inside. Lightning flashed across the copse, once, twice, three times, and the stand of trees rapidly became a clearing. A gout of fire erupted amongst the clash of spells for a moment, but was extinguished as quickly as it had come.

Harsh orders were shouted around the edges of the spell battle, and the sound of humans rapidly retreating from the point of clash was heard throughout the surrounding wood.

A cataclysmic blast of fire more than a hundred feet across erupted on one flank of the battle, gutting the Reconquista forces retreating in that direction. Thirty seconds later, a second blast erupted on the opposite flank, paring down those that remained even further. The commoner infantry broke and ran; what mages survived concealed their wands within their robes, and attempted to blend in with their subordinates. It had not escaped the nobles' notice that they were being targeted both as a matter of priority, and only their leader had yet to survive the Hellcat's attentions.

A leader who was locked in a duel with a living legend.

Then another figure, a legend twice over, stepped onto the battlefield, though none of Reconquista's soldiers recognized her for what she was.

Jaeger did.

((()))

Something 'pinged' Jaeger's senses, and he _Moved_, but for the first time in a long, _long_ time, he didn't move fast enough; a gloved fist seized him by the scruff of his neck, and hoisted him off of his paws. Jaeger reacted by shifting to human form, breaking free primarily via merit of no longer having fur for his assailant to grip, leaping forward and twisting as soon as his human feet struck the ground.

Again, he did not move fast enough, as his foe, clad in a hooded cloak that concealed nearly all except her gender, seized him again, this time by the throat. Jaeger thrashed against his grip, breaking free with considerable difficulty, before stepping back in a defensive stance, eying the woman warily.

"You're not one of Reconquista's thugs," He said evenly, "What are you doing here?"

"My master has an interest in the Myoztherin," The woman said, hefting the dagger in her left hand as she spoke, "I have been ordered to bring you to him. Considering my abilities, and your lack of artifacts to empower you, I would suggest coming peacably. It will make things easier for both of us."

"What of Matilda and her sister?" Jaeger demanded, slowly lowering his stance and tensing as he did so.

"Foquet was told what the price would be if she disobeyed us," She replied with a shrug, "It is no concern of yours, either way."

_Though the battle may seem bleak, do not flee, do not attempt to disengage, confront your enemy directly, do not yield, and fight until she flees before you,_ Jaeger silently recalled to himself, curling his lips back to bare his teeth, before once again setting the world awash in flame.

((()))

Tiffania winced as another thunderous detonation rocked the forest, instinctively reaching out to clasp her sister's hand.

"Are you _sure_ that's the cat?" The half-elf asked fearfully.

"Quite," Matilda replied, struggling to be comforting rather than terse as she waited for any last 'stragglers' to stumble upon the barricaded orphanage, "I've seen him use that spell myself. It half-destroyed one of my golems."

Tiffania's eyes widened in concern, and Matilda winced as she realized she'd let too much slip, and set herself up for an interrogation she did _not_ want. Her sister was almost impossible to dissuade once she had determined that something needed doing.

((()))

_Inferno Blast wounded her, but not fully; unsurprisingly for someone faster and stronger than me, she was also resistant to fire. The nasty part, was that she was regenerating from the damage faster than I could dish it out._

_On the upside, though she combined spellcasting with the raw physical power and speed, she didn't seem to be much of a tactician, and was trying to take me alive. Time to see if I could catch her Flatfooted._

((()))

"You held out on me," Wardes spat, blood mixing with saliva as he tried to clear his throat and breathe.

"Hardly," Karin said with a dismissive snort, "I taught you as much as was viable in what time I had to train you. It is not my fault that you were too busy pursuing _treason_ to properly attend your training. Even had you been, I doubt you could have caught up with me, regardless of what I have lost to age."

"Bitch," Wardes wheezed, the fingers of his crushed right hand twitching for the smashed sword-wand that lay beneath Karin's boot.

"Traitor," Karin returned evenly, before kicking the prone man in the side of the head, rendering him unconscious, "You are both cursed and blessed that I'll be taking you to Mary-Anne for justice, rather than simply executing you myself."

((()))

"This is tiresome," The woman said, irritation plain in her voice as she dashed back across one of the craters Jaeger had already burned into the forest floor, "It is readily apparent that you have no chance of defeating me; why do you persist in dragging this out?"

Jaeger said nothing in response, instead launching himself at her in blaze of aggravated flames again; she dodged his blitz, and gave two slashes across his side with her knife for his trouble. The blade cut deep, leaving a pair of long, bloody gashes through the muscle on his left flank; Jaeger responded by teleporting to the opposite side of his foe in a flicker of flame, slamming his fist into her back as he did so.

It was the third time he'd been able to lay a direct blow on her the entire fight; magically-hardened flesh didn't give in the slightest.

"That almost hurt," She said sarcastically as she spun in place and slashed out with her knife again, but Jaeger had already disappeared in a flicker of shadow; her blow caught nothing but air.

"Interesting move," She continued, turning her dagger upward and catching him with it as he dropped down on top of her; this time he was unable to evade, "But I've fought Wind mages before, even if your teleportation is a _little_ different."

She struck him with the hilt of the knife, rather than the blade, mindful of bleeding him too much, and he grunted as the blow took him in the solar plexus, but ignored the pain and moved into a blistering flurry of punches and kicks, intense flames flowing around his fists and feet as he did so. She danced around his blows, moving with a speed and grace that made his skillful offensive seem simplistic and utilitarian by comparison.

"_Why?_" She asked, frustration mixing with curiosity in her voice as she skipped back away from him, "We've been at this for _minutes_, you _have _to know you cannot beat me with nothing more than your odd fire magic. You're skilled for a mortal, but my familiar powers trump yours in melee, and I'm clearly the more powerful spellcaster as well."

Jaeger triggered Inferno Blast again, washing the area in fire, though his foe had already retreated from the primary blast radius.

((()))

_Emerald Razor to get her flat-footed, allowing me to pierce her Mage Armor, Shield , and catch her sufficiently unawares that she did not simply dodge._

_But if it even _did_ deal damage, she was still healing it._

_Worse, she had clued in to my refresh cycle with Inferno Blast, and was fast enough to stay out of range of it; time to attempt an approach both less direct and more blunt._

((()))

"They're making a _terrible_ mess," Tiffania said worriedly, wincing as another series of crashes sounded through the forest, "Why are they knocking down so many trees?"

"I have no idea," Matilda said with a shrug.

((()))

"You know," She growled, diving out of the way of another falling tree trunk, "I'm _trying_ to establish a cordial working relationship here. You're coming with me whether you like it or not, but I'd like to have someone _intelligent_ to speak with while riding herd on Cromwell and his buffoons. You're making that _very difficult._"

She lunged forward and attempted to seize him by the throat again, but he was able to overpower the one hand with the both of his. He attempted to seize her dagger while she was in close, but he was _far_ from fast enough, and she simply danced back out of reach.

"You could at _least_ show me the courtesy of _speaking_ with me," She growled, before lunging back in to club him in the face with the hilt of her dagger, catching him off guard and finally succeeding at knocking him to the ground.

"You came here," Jaeger groaned out, his words wet with blood from his freshly-broken nose, "To kidnap or kill an innocent young woman and a bunch of children, because someone refused to kidnap and plan a political coup for you."

He looked up to glare at the woman, but the effect was somewhat ruined by his right eye twisting off to the side and refusing to focus.

"Our 'working relationship,'" Jaeger said flatly, "Will begin and end with blood. Mine that you have shed here, and most likely your masters that will be shed either by me, or another of my Lord's servants. Hand Louise over, and I'll argue for Joseph to be imprisoned rather than summarily executed, though I doubt Karin will allow such forgiveness."

"You have _no right_ to judge my master," The woman hissed, planting a foot on his chest and snarling as his words touched a nerve, "No _Familiar_ has the right to judge a _King._"

"You think I mean _Louise_ when I speak of my Master?" Jaeger said, disbelief edging into his voice, "I'm referring to _God._ Do you-"

He was cut off by a shriek of incoherent rage, the woman's face purpling as she lunged at him again.

((()))

_Treefall was a no-go; making her lose her temper, on the other hand, seemed to work pretty well. Hopefully, it would give me an opening to get that dagger out of her hand, and figure out why she was so insistent on trying to grapple one handed to keep it._

_Also, pain._

((()))

"You _bastard!_" She screamed, all restraint and attempts to capture alive gone as she lashed out, drawing a deep bloody gash across Jaeger's chest, "_No-one_ has the right to judge Joseph! _Nobody!_ And especially no 'god' of this sick, twisted world!"

She stabbed at him again, and this time, he moved _into_ the blow, deliberately letting her sink the blade into his right abdomen, seizing her wrist as he did so, and forcing her grip on the weapon to break.

The instant the dagger left her hand, _everything_ about her somehow became **less.** It was most immediately obvious in how she was unable to immediately break Jaeger's grip on her, less immediately so in how she had lost an edge of grace, of speed, to her movements.

"I'm going to look forward to finding out what's in this dagger," Jaeger ground out through clenched teeth as his foe finally tore herself free from his grasp, "It's certainly potent."

"Idiot," His foe spat, sweeping back her hood to reveal pointed, elven ears, "It's not the dagger, it's that I'm the bloody _Gandalfr."_

Then she drew a sword from within her cloak, wielding it with both hands, and her strength, grace, and speed returned.

"You should have struck while I was unarmed," She snarled, before hurling herself onto the offensive again.

((()))

_Shit._

_A potential means to defeat her shown, but she's not playing with me any more. I can't see a way out of this._

_This is why I received the message in the dream; if I hadn't been commanded otherwise, this is where I would have retreated. As it is, there's only two things left to do:_

_Pray, and __**Attack.**_

((()))

Sheffield was more than a little surprised when Jaeger attacked directly into her thrust, but it mattered little to her; with the dagger in hand, she'd been beyond him, with the _sword_, which _was_ a powerful magical artifact, she was functionally untouchable.

Not that he didn't try _damn_ hard to lay a blow on her nonetheless; his attack cost him another stab-wound to the abdomen, this one far larger, and bad enough that a hint of intestine was dragged out of the wound when the blade withdrew. His flaming fist smashed into the magical barriers wrapped around the Gandalfr, to no greater effect than any of his previous attempts, and Sheffiled sneered at him.

Sheffield's retaliatory backhand smashed Jaeger down into the ground again, snapping his jaw and sending several teeth flying; Jaeger allowed the blow to drive him into a roll, gaining a few feet of separation before killing the rest of the imparted momentum in rolling to his feet.

((()))

_I was fairly certain at this point that my wounds were mortal. I knew Tiffania was a healer of considerable ability, and _should_ have enough magic-juice left to restore me from pretty much any amount of damage, but with the second get-myself-stabbed gambit failing, it was pretty clear that my chances of surviving the battle to make it to her were pretty much nil._

_Somehow, I was supposed to defeat Sheffield though._

_I couldn't see it. I saw no way to overcome the gap in abilities between us._

_I had a Divine Imperative though, so I was damn well going to act on it; _I _couldn't see how to stop her, but she needed to be stopped, and I had a Command to do it here and now._

_Maybe I'd wear her out enough for Karin to take down._

_I attacked again._

((()))

"Are you _suicidal?_" Sheffield screeched as Jaeger lunged at her again, blood trailing from his abdomen and broken jaw, sizzling into vapor as soon as it left contact with his body and was boiled or burned away by the flames wrapped around his body, "Or do you just not understand that _You cannot win?"_

Fed up with his intransigience, she smoothly sidestepped his latest jab, bringing her blade down ans severing the attacking arm just below the elbow as she did so, following the blow up with a kick that knocked him to the ground again. The kick cracked something in Jaeger's chest, but he spun with the blow, dropping into an attempt at a leg sweep, before initiating his Searing Charge maneuver at point blank rang; his remaining fist reaching for her face.

An immaterial pane of force stopped the blow dead, and the rest of Jaeger's body smashed into it an instant thereafter. Blood, moving too slowly to trigger the magical defense, spattered on Sheffield's face as the shapeshifter snarled at her through his broken jaw, bones visibly grinding against each other beneath his glowing eyes.

"_Fine,_" Sheffield growled, "_Die_ then."

And then she stabbed him in the chest, and spoke a single command.

"Derflinger, _drink._"

((()))

Miles away, laying on a rather luxurious bed, Louise's eyes snapped open as a rush of power suddenly flowed through her, and she turned to face Northwest.

"Jaeger," She breathed, "You came."

((()))

_It started neither quickly nor slowly, it simply _WAS._ I could feel it, sucking away at me like a siphon, and from the sheer force of the draw, I would have worried it would do me ill, if not for one factor._

_The force was pulling on a malfeasance that had latched on to me, rather than pulling on me directly. More, it was strong enough to begin tearing the malfeasance loose, in spite of my own inability to force the thing away._

_My sense of time was distorted, almost nonexistant; I could not tell you how long it took the force to tear the entirety of the _thing_ away, but tear it did, until the wholeness of it was gone, taking only loose bits of my own power with it._

_Then, I was __**Free**__._

((()))

Sheffield, familiar of Joseph, King of Gallia, and the Void Familiar Gandalfr, first realized that something was wrong when Jaeger's eyes snapped open and he kicked up into her arm, freeing Deflinger's blade from his flesh.

Then he began to _laugh_, and Sheffield knew that somewhere, some way, she had miscalculated _horribly_.

"I owe you thanks, Sheffield, Elven familiar of Gallia," Jaeger said, voice distorted by his broken jaw as he flipped up to his feet, his movements smooth and graceful, wounds in his flesh visibly closing as she watched, "If not-" He broke off for a moment to deflect a blow from Derflinger _with his bare hand,_ something he had _not_ been capable of just a minute before, "For a word of warning from my Lord, and your use of that weapon, I would still be under a three-fold curse."

He paused for a moment and grinned, baring teeth in a jaw that was visibly shifting back into its proper shape as a manic light shone from his eyes.

"Now let's try this again," Jaeger continued, "With a few _revisions._ First, _Temporal Acceleration._"

So saying, he snapped his fingers, and began to _move._

((()))

_Buffs. _All_ of the buffs. Being a Swiftblade, Haste to start with (also granting me 50% chance of evading any non area-of-effect attack, and complete immunity to being tied down, _and_ extra actions), followed by Augmented Inertial Armor and Force Screen from my Psionic Powers. After that, Heart Of Air, Water, Earth, and Fire, for redundant Critical Immunity, speed, Damage Reduction, and Fire Resistance boosts._

_Then I noticed that my 'HUD' was indicating that I had levels available to play with; eeeexcellent._

((()))

Louise shivered as she felt her body _change_. Where she had been growing at a very swift pace over the last few weeks, it had still been within human norms, if only barely. The growth within her body _now_ was at a pace that could only be described as supernatural, and it _hurt_.

It hurt a _great deal_, primarily in her bones, and particularly in her skull. There was a crawling sensation under her skin, her scalp prickled, her eyes burned, all of these sensations were noted, but largely ignored beside the burning pain throughout her skeletal structure. Mercifully, after what she guessed to have been only a few minutes, the pain began to taper off; it took altogether too long, but eventually she was plagued only by a deep ache, rather than acute agony.

As the pain receded, Louise forced her attention to the world around herself, and found that she was in a very soft bed, one suitably ornate to fit her exalted social status, though she had only hazy memories of arriving at it. The panicked servant standing beside the bed, she neither recognized, nor had any memory of having arrived.

"What are you so worked up about, maid?" Louise asked, her voice hoarse from both disuse and the strain she had just experienced.

"You've been screaming and thrashing milady!" The woman said, the panic in her voice just as clear as her Albion accent, "I sent the guard for a healer, b-but he should have been back by now, and-"

"_Calm down_," Louise ordered sternly, speaking in the voice she had been taught to use with serving staff; firm, unyielding, but not _harsh_, "I am in some pain, but it is fading, and I do not appear to be mortally injured. Now _where am I?_"

"Broadley-on-Cleefs in Albion, milady," The maid said, her mood diminishing from 'panicked' to 'frantic, "Lord Wardes brought you-"

"_Wardes,"_ Louise snarled, hissing as memory suddenly returned to her, bright and clear.

((()))

"Tell me, Sheffield," Jaeger asked cordially, kicking his severed right forearm up to rejoin with its stump while deflecting Derflinger with his hand, "What is the most powerful foe you have ever faced?"

Sheffield said nothing in respond, instead simply pressing her assault. For nearly a full ten seconds, Jaeger watched her with an expression of patient expectation, giving his arm time to finish reattaching itself, then flexing it carefully to make sure it was functioning properly again.

"Well," Jaeger continued once he'd given her a more than polite amount of time to respond (with something other than her sword), "Let me tell you about a few of the enemies I've fought, m'kay?"

He twisted around Sheffield's latest thrust, then backhanded her across the face, the blow slipping between her magical shields to rattle her jaw and split her lips.

"We'll start with the demigod who had nine lives, and go from there..."

((()))

"Please return to your room, lady Valliere," The Count of Broadley-on-Cleefs said somewhat hesitantly as he stared at the Tristainian noble, who was substantially _larger_ than she had been when she arrived the night before, "Count Wardes requested we keep your presence a secret until after the wedding-"

"_There will be no wedding,_" Louise snarled, seizing the Count by his shoulders, "_Where_ is that traitor Wardes?"

"_Traitor?_" The Count gasped, suddenly realizing that despite how things may have seemed the night before, the enraged noblewoman in front of him was _not_ sympathetic to the Reconquista's cause, "_Guards!_"

((()))

"I do _not_ believe that you have faced a _demigod_," Sheffield said flatly, fading back from a flurry of blows that Jaeger made seem lazy, at least to one who could perceive the speed at which his fists were moving, "Firstborns are trouble enough by themselves, gods are beyond the ability of man or elf to contest."

"_Really_," Jaeger said with a grin, before stepping out of Foquet's reach just long enough to...

Sheffield blinked.

Jaeger had just turned into a _Dragon?_

"Illusions won't do you-" She started, but then she was talking to _four_ Jaegers, each of them in the form of a large gold-scaled Dragon, Then a set of four enormous Tigers, made of some substance that Sheffield was not familiar with, and covered with spikes, joined them.

"**Who said anything about illusions?**" Jaeger said with a smirk.

((()))

The guardsman's sword went 'thump' as it struck Louise's forearm. A forearm which gave no sign of bleeding, much less being broken or severed as appropriate to such a blow from a longsword swung by a trained soldier weighing more than two hundred pounds. Louise realized that she was actually just as tall as the guard, and that he had just tried to _cut her with a sword._

aaaa

She punched him in the face, and broke his nose.

((()))

"Frankly," Jaeger, just one of him now, though still in the form of a powerfully-built Gold Dragon, "I'm impressed you were able to tank that. You're a tough woman, even if you're crazy."

Sheffield said nothing, just glaring up at the Dragon as she waited for her wounds to close.

"Be warned," Jaeger said harshly, "I am _far_ from exerting the full breadth of my offensive capabilities. Do you _really_ want to push me further by refusing to speak with me?"

"How are you so powerful?" Sheffield demanded after a moment's hesitation, "The Myoztherin is _not_ supposed to have such abilities as you do."

"Simple," Jaeger replied, "Much as you were a spellcaster before you became Gandalfr, I was a powerful warrior before Louise ever summoned me to Halkeginia. If Joseph could summon an already-potent Familiar, why would not the other Void Mages?"

"Because none of them are my _Joseph_," Sheffield snarled, and Jaeger frowned sadly.

"He is, if anything, even _less_ fit a leader than-"

Sheffield cut him off with another lunging thrust; Jaeger parried easily, and then cast his last spell of the battle.

"Disjunction."

Abjuration magic in its most powerful form was unleashed, instantly obliterating every magical effect upon Sheffield's person, even rendering her Gandalfr runes quiescent temporarily. Only Derflinger's magic was potent enough to weather the magic unchanged, something Jaeger did not miss, as he tore it from her grip immediately thereafter.

Then Sheffield disappeared in a flash of teleportation magic.

"...I did not see _that_ coming," Jaeger admitted, before turning to face southward himself, "But it's a fairly good idea."

Then he disappeared as well.

((()))

A _crack_ of displaced air accompanied by a change in the lighting caused everyone in the large foyer of the castle Broadly-On-Cleefs to freeze in place. Six armsmen were in the process of attempting to subdue Louise; two had broken noses, one a crushed hand, and the shards of several broken bladed weapons littered the stone floor around them.

A _huge_ Gold Dragon appearing directly above them, glimmering scales reflecting the torchlight down onto them even as its shadow stretched across them all, did a more than adequate job of changing their immediate priorities.

"**Excuse me,**" Jaeger ground out in a deep voice sized appropriately to his current form, "**But this young lady happens to be under my protection. Release her **_**now**_**, or things will get **_**messy**_** in here.**"

The guards hesitated; Louise did not, slamming her right elbow back into the neck of one of the guards holding her, and tearing herself free from the grip of the other two who had their hands upon her.

"_Jaeger!_" She shouted, "_Burn_ these ruffians!"

Jaeger reached down with one massive clawed appendage and gently lifted her up in front of his face, briefly inspecting her for injury. He found no real injury, but he _did_ notice the slash marks in her gown, marks sized appropriately to the shattered weapons on the foyer's stone floor.

"**Today," **Jaeger growled as he glared down at the offending soldiers with one baleful eye, "**I grant you all a stay of execution, for no other reason than that I serve a merciful God. Know this though, my mind and memory have been restored, and I will recognize each and everyone of you should I find you assailing a maiden again, one who does **_**not**_** have legendary magics protecting her.**"

Then he seated Louise upon his back, and disappeared again.

((()))

When Karin found the shattered remnants of Jaeger and Sheffield's battlefield, she was uncertain who had actually _won_ the fight. Hundreds of yards of forest had been blasted clear of trees, large swathes of the ground had been melted into glass, and spotfires were everywhere. Blood was not hard to find about the battlefield either; but she had no idea whose blood it was.

A one-eyed golden Dragon appearing in midair above the battlefield, her daughter riding astride it, made the battle's victor apparent quite readily.

"Daughter!" She called immediately, "Are you well?"

The Dragon turned, and swooped downward to land beside her, causing the ground to tremble slightly. The instant it had touched down, its form shifted, twisted, and shrank, seconds later leaving the human form her daughter's Familiar had taken in front of her before, gently holding Louise in a bridal carry; up close, Karin could see that the only blood on her daughter's (substantially larger and subtly different) form was on her knuckles, smeared there in a pattern the Heavy Wind recognized well as meaning it belonged to her enemies.

"_You __**came**_**,**" Louise whispered, her voice fraught with emotion, as she looked back and forth between her one-eyed Familiar and her mother, "I _knew_ you'd come."

Then, for the first time since she'd been nine years old, Louise Valliere began to cry in front of her mother.

((()))

AN: This is one of very, very, _very _few pieces where I did repeated re-writes of scenes to try to get what I wanted out of it. This has been frustrating to write. I apologize for any particularly notable errors that slipped through anyways, I definitely hit 'It's time to just post the damn thing' mode in the end here.


	12. Dungeon Crawler in Halkegenia pt 6

AN: I want to particularly acknowledge Mazamba for an insightful review. Rexnos too, but his reviews are _always_ awesome. I'll have a longer/more involved AN after the chapter going into the religious stuff some people found objectionable.

((()))

Karin Valliere had never _heard_ of Teleportation before that night, and seeing it in action was, in a way, terrifying. The strategic implications _alone_, much less the potential consequences in regards to _assassination_ attempts, threatened to overturn the political and military balance of all of Halkeginia.

She was heartened that the power lay in the hands of a being at least nominally allied with her family, but what she had seen since Jaeger's full power had been revealed... Something less tenuous than a mutual Familiar Bond with her daughter would have been _vastly_ preferred. Especially given how the bond had affected her daughter.

The Duchess stared at her daughter's altered form with no small amount of worry, though she kept quiet as the healer examined Louise, both her (minor) injuries, and her changes. The first and most obvious of the changes, was that Louise was _larger_. _Much_ larger. Louise had scarcely topped five feet when she first summoned her Familiar, now she stood just a hair shy of six feet tall. Beyond that, her body had also 'filled out,' both in the sense of gaining muscle mass, and in the sense of gaining the shape and curves befitting a mature woman.

Louise was by no means voluptuous, but a small part of Karin was glad to know that Louise would no longer have reason to complain about her figure.

Simple growth was only the beginning however; what could from a distance be taken as the glinting of oddly-placed jewelry, was in fact a hard, gemlike substance that had apparently grown beneath the pinkette's skin. It was hard enough to shatter iron or un-enchanted steel, and was visible only in places where it had done just that, destroying or damaging deadly weapons that had been wielded against Karin's daughter, failing to do anything more than penetrate Louise's skin and draw a modest amount of blood.

A cold anger burned within Karin at the _number_ of such injuries Louise had sustained, even if none of them had done her daughter _serious_ injury.

Wardes had much to answer for.

Mentally shaking off that course of thought, Karin returned her attention to the final external alteration to her youngest child's body; the nubs of a set of horns protruding from her skull, just above her hairline. If not for that one alteration, Louise, when uninjured, could have passed for a normal (if large) human woman amongst noble society, but the Healer had already ascertained that the horns were growing.

"Why did you do this?" Karin finally asked, turning to face the creature standing beside her, currently in the shadow-wrapped form of what was, more or less, a human.

"Why does this," Jaeger tapped the glowing runes on his forehead as he spoke, "Give me an instinctive and intuitive understanding of enchanted items? Your daughter is the one who initiated the Familiar Bond between us, not myself. That my magic flowed back to affect her as well is hardly surprising, considering just how much of it I have."

"The Familiar Binding ritual is a product of Brimir's Holy work," Karin said flatly, "I find it difficult to believe that so potent a thing could be warped _unintentionally_ by your magic, strange as it may be."

"It is what it is," Jaeger said with a shrug, "I used to have a Familiar of my own; it was lost when I was cursed. Now the curse has been broken, and Louise has been imbued in much the same way a Familiar would be. It is what it is."

"Can you undo the magic?" Karin demanded.

"If we break the Familiar bond," Jaeger said with a shrug, "Something I _may_ be able to do without killing one of us. If it was only my magic, I know I could, but Brimiric magic is something I've had little practical study of, and I am uncertain if I could affect it in the desired way."

"I suggest you begin such studies," Karin said stiffly, "And promptly."

"No," Jaeger refused bluntly, shaking his head as he spoke, before turning to look at Louise once more, "I have other things to do with my time, now that I am recovered. If _Louise_ wishes the bond broken, I will investigate the possibility. I do not answer to you, and I would do such for her because she holds authority over her own body, _not_ because of any authority she may think she holds over me."

"You _are_ her Familiar," Karin said curtly, "By law-"

"By _your _law," Jaeger interrupted her, turning the full weight of his one-eyed gaze upon her again, "A law which does not account for Familiars being Sapient beings with their own free will. I will _not_ **be a **_**Slave**_**.**"

Karin stilled her tongue, knowing when a battle was wisest left unfought. She turned to study her daughter again, suppressing a scowl; once Louise had had time to recover from her ordeal, the issue _would _be raised again.

((()))

When Louise was awake once more, and had received the full healer's report, she wasn't sure what she should feel more violated by; what Wardes had done to her mind intentionally, or what her Familiar had done to her body unintentionally. She felt detached, disassociated from reality; her Familiar had turned into a Dragon and could cast proper spells now, her Fiance had kidnapped her and tried to mind-control her into betraying her family, nation, and Henrietta, her body had changed into something not quite human any longer, and oh yes, she was a _Void Mage._

She felt like reality in its entirety was collapsing around her.

A knock on the door of her bedroom was a welcome distraction from her mental near-fugue.

"Enter," Louise called, wincing slightly at the deeper tone her voice had taken after she had grown. It wasn't a _masculine_ tone, but it was a far cry from the Soprano she used to be.

"Louise?" Cattleya called as she slipped into the room, her voice full of concern, "Mother said-oh my."

Cattleya's voice hitched as she caught sight of Louise's significantly enlarged form, as well as the bandages wrapped around the handful of cuts that the family Healer had elected to let heal naturally, rather than with magic. Louise flinched at Cattleya's reactions, and was glad that none of the crystalline substance beneath her skin was visible any longer, and that her horns (_horns!_) were as-yet easily concealed beneath her hairline.

"What _happened_ to you Louise?" Cattleya asked softly, rushing across the room fast enough to tax her weak constitution, and wrapping the now-larger girl in a tight hug, "Mother and your Familiar refused to say."

"Did Mother tell you that Wardes turned traitor?" Louise asked half-heartedly.

Cattleya nodded.

"He tried to convince me to defect with him," Louise continued, her eyes losing focus as her voice became fainter, "And when I refused, he kidnapped me, then used some sort of artifact to control my mind."

Cattleya shivered, sinking down onto Louise's bed and looking faintly green as she continued to hold her younger sister. Louise simply lay in her sister's arms, uncertain and listless, her eyes occasionally wandering to a bandage on her right forearm, and trying not to pay attention to how much _smaller_ her bedchamber seemed on the whole.

"What happened to your body?" Cattleya pressed gently.

"As Jaeger told me," Louise said emptily, "In binding him as my Familiar, I have also made myself his. Whereas my magic marked him with runes, his has changed my body to make it more suitable to combat. That was a prediction though, when I was simply growing quickly, not..."

Louise trailed off, and tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes again; Cattleya resisted the urge to cringe, and began running her fingers through Louise's hair. Louise flinched when her sister's fingers came into contact with her scalp, and it did not take Cattleya long to discover why.

"Oh, dear Louise," Cattleya said softly, "I know you always wished you had grown more, but that it should happen like this..."

"That's not even the worst," Louise said, hysteria beginning to creep into her voice, "I can _feel_ him, on the edge of my mind. I can _feel _his emotions, his feeling, and how he _guilty_ he is, how terrified he is, because of what he did, because of how I might react, to what he did _accidentally_, when he came and _rescued_ me from being taken against my will just _yesterday_. What do I _do?_"

Tears flowed freely down her face, as Louise twisted in place and desperately latched onto Cattleya, causing the older girl to gasp as she was half-crushed by the youngest Valliere's newfound strength.

"Louise," Cattleya wheezed out, "Please be careful with me, you are not yet accustomed to your new strength."

Louise went limp, and completely dissolved into tears. For long, long minutes, nearly half an hour in total, Cattleya simply held her, stroking her hair regardless of the small horns emerging from her skill, and whispering small comforting words into her ears. When the tears finally ran down, Louise fell asleep, and after a minute's consideration, Cattleya carefully lay her out on the bed, then lay down and joined her.

((()))

The next day, Louise found Jaeger in one of the gardens outside of Cattleya's Menagerie, laying in the shade of a tree in human form, watching Tabitha and her Dragon cuddle.

"Cattleya said you wanted to speak to me," Louise said quietly, still discomfited slightly by the change to her voice "But you were letting me initiate conversation, in case I did not wish to speak with you."

"It would not be surprising if you did not," Jaeger replied equally quietly, "I can feel how upset you are over the Familiar bond. It is going to take time getting used to having someone who can see through our masks readily."

"Masks?" Louise asked as she seated herself beneath the tree.

"Both of us tend to conceal our emotions from others," Jaeger said with a shrug, "Which is an important psychological subject to discuss, but not what I wanted to talk to you about right now."

"What did you wish to speak with me about?" Louise asked.

"I can change your body back to how it was," Jaeger said, nodding towards her, "But to do so, I would need to break the Familiar Bond. Do you want me to?"

Through the bond, Jaeger could sense the relief and excitement that erupted in Louise at his first statement; it came as no surprise, he had quite expected it. The sudden panic and conflicting emotions that came at his second and the question that followed it, he had _not_ expected, and was confused by; his confusion feeding back through the bond to her, spawning confusion in turn, did nothing to simplify matters.

Jaeger considered himself to have been through a lot in life, to be very broadly experienced; experiencing an emotional feedback loop with a teenage girl was still a new thing for him. He shuddered in a moment of horror, glad that his bond with Rin, brief as it had been, hadn't featured empathy. Louise shivered in sympathy to his horror, staring at him in deepening confusion, and over the next few minutes hitherto unexperienced awkwardness continued.

Eventually Louise broke the loop, largely because she could tell he hated feeling embarrassed as much as she did, and leaving his question unanswered was becoming steadily less appealing than being trapped in the feedback loop.

"No!" Louise burst out, "I'd like it if I didn't have horns growing in, or some sort of crystal under my skin, but I don't want you to break the link!"

"Why?" Jaeger asked steadily, beginning to forcibly reign his emotions in, before shock overwhelmed him for a moment.

A terrified loneliness flared within Louise's heart in response to his question, and Jaeger grimaced, grinding his teeth and squeezing his eyes shut as an aching resonance erupted within his own. Grunting, he reached out and pulled Louise into a hug; she responded in kind.

"Though my power may be formidable, I am not God," Jaeger said softly into his ear, "For as long as it is up to me, and you desire it, I will not let you be Alone as you were ever again."

Louise said nothing, but nodded fiercely into his shoulder. They sat beneath the tree together for a _long_ time.

((()))

AN: So, some readers felt that I 'crammed in' religion, in a way that just was jarring and inappropriate to the story. It's kind of strange, considering that 1, Halkeginia is a setting with a ridiculously entrenched religion (one I personally find repulsive), 2, D'n'D has an expansive pantheon of its own, and 3, I've made no bones about the protag being a Christian (as he's an SI) right from the first installement.

I am a Christian. Christian means 'follower of Christ.' It's right there on my profile page, it's right there in the first installment of Dungeon Crawler, I've made no bones about this. To some it may seem like I'm 'forcing' my religion into a story, but as these are, by nature, SI's, it would be a complete destruction of the protagonist to _remove_ any and all Christian elements from the story.

In point of fact, I've actually deliberately underplayed that element of my character a great deal, due to narrative clash. Simply put, the stories that Dungeon Crawler has crossed with since the Chicago installment, are generally written by what I tend to refer to as agnostics/apathetics; people who have no clearly defined Worldview in regards to such existential issues as God, Life, Death, and Morality.

I have such clearly defined views, and as such, so does Jaeger. A lot of people are perfectly content if the hero of a story does the heroic thing 'because it's just the right thing to do,' but I'm a bit more existential than that; I want to know _why_ it is the right thing.

To take the example from ZnT, is it right or wrong for the Nobility to rule over the Common Folk? That's an existential question, because by the creed most of Halkeginia is taught/is implied to by into, magic is literally a direct gift from God, and is what establishes the right of the Nobility to rule over the Commoners. If you want to counter that claim, you need to get existential yourself, and I, as a Christian, have a ready and easy response; 'God created man in His image, male and female He created them.'

That's not an exact quote, but the essence of scripture there, as applied to this issue, is that being created in the image of God gives people an inherent value and worth; we can think, we feel, we can create, we're sentient, sapient, self-aware, whatever you wish to call it, _there is a soul in a human being._

Translating this to a fantasy setting with magic and magical species is fairly easy; in this version of reality anything sapient is under the same 'sapient, thinking/feeling/made in the image of God' category, and rather than witchcraft/summoning souls of the dead being outlawed, it's just straight-up necromancy that is.

To sum things up; I do not subscribe to the agnosticism/atheism predominant in modern media. Due to trying to treat the settings I'm writing fanfiction in with a decent amount of respect, as they are often written by agnostics/atheists, I keep my own worldview from completely ovewhelming the story, but especially in a SI series, **it will come out sometimes**. If you don't want to see a Christian worldview show up in stories, don't read work by a Christian author.

And as a final note/warning, if I continue this branch of Dungeon Crawler beyond this point, religious themes will get a lot heavier. Why? Because Halkeginia is dominated by a corrupt false religion, run by a genocidal maniac of a pope, and that's an issue that will need to be dealt with if this story continues. For now though, this story is done.


End file.
